Anthonissen, Christine and Jan Blommaert. (Eds.). Discourse and Human Rights Violations. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2007, Pp. 143. ISBN: 978 90 272 2235 0 (hbk.) $96.00, 80.00 [euro].

The book is a good example or case study for discourse analysis wherein scholars analyze

These papers were presented at a conference organized by the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) set up to investigate violations of human rights; the papers themselves focus on discourse analysis or analysis of language as a means to subvert such violations. The commission instituted by the provisions of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act No. 34 of 1995, was aimed at dealing with the systematic violations of human rights in the country before the eventual transition to democracy in 1994. The TRC attempted to attend to transitional justice and help provide compensatory, distributive and restorative justice as opposed to mere penal justice offered by trials and punishment. The papers examine how TRC was able to promote national unity and reconciliation in a spirit of understanding which transcends conflicts and the divisions of the past.

The papers focus on discourse analysis, on aspects of language and communication in official processes of dealing with traumatic pasts, like human rights violations in South Africa. Linguists, communicators, and a number of other social scientists investigate discourses, especially those generated during the hearings of TRC, scrutinizing them to see how trauma is articulated, and sometimes overcome; or how confrontational discourses are publicly managed; or how after grave human rights violations, reconciliation can be mediated. The papers as a whole present language as an instrument for confronting a traumatic past, for negotiating conflict, and for initiating processes of hearing for individuals as well for communities.

The chapter by Verdoolaege highlights a classification of the thematic interests such as legal, religious, political, psychological, anthropological, and linguistic perspectives of the literature available on TRC. In another article by Blommaert, Bock, and McCormick the victims' hearings about human rights violations are analyzed from their ability to use language to articulate their sad experiences. Going a step further Anthonissen analyzes the ways different people--a journalist, a female observer, a doctor who treated the victims, a school teacher, and so on--narrated their experiences of these hearings, and shows how language can play a definitive role in these. In the last two papers, Gagiano sees these hearings from the perspective of South African novelists, while Ross analyses the linguistic hearings and testimonial practices associated with these hearings.

Building on the work of authors like Faircloug, Van Dijk, and Wodak, the present authors have righlty analysed power structures and ideologies, all powered by a strong racist attitude in South Africa. All in all, an interesting case study for critical discourse analysis.

Jacob Srampickal, S. J.

Gregorian University, Rome.