The term vulnerability was adopted by Judith Butler in the aftermath of 9/11 to signify the undesirable exposure of nations and peoples to war-related acts of violence. Butler questioned whose lives mattered at an international scale, as well as whose vulnerabilities remained invisible and uncontested as nationalist discourses strove to get over the United States’ own sense of fragility by increasing the vulnerability of peoples and nations whose lives not only did not matter but were even a condition to make up for the United States’ perceived ontological damage.
We seek contributions that explore the ways in which representing vulnerability problematizes its visualization in film and literature. Both theoretical and practical approaches as well as different critical stances are welcome.