Constituting Phronesis: The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission

• In Event: Rhetorical Approaches to Understanding Conflict

Abstract

This paper analyzes the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a rhetorically constituted public space that fostered a sense of democratic inclusion and created a forum for political action in a formerly oppressed public sphere. The TRC interpellated a new citizenry to engage with a painful past for the sake of national unity. It was precisely this communicative process that helped steady the bridge between apartheid and a multiracial democracy in South Africa.

Author

• Lisa Carlton, University of Iowa