Opowiedzieć okrucieństwo – analiza zachowań niewerbalnych świadków zbrodni wojennych
Telling the cruelty – an analysis of nonverbal behaviours of war crimes witnesses

Summary/Abstract: The study focused on nonverbal behaviours of witnesses to war crimes accompanyingtheir verbalization of traumatic memories. The undertaken analysis involved fifty-fivetestimonies given by witnesses of crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina in theperiod 1991–1995, as well as testimonies in documentary films about the civil warin the former Yugoslavia. The purpose of the study was to determine in which partsof the testimony the witnesses’ gestures are most intense, and to isolate the maincategories of gestural behaviour exhibited by the victims of war crimes in order to visualize their experiences for the audience and clarify the verbal message. Taking intoconsideration the findings in the field of trauma psychology, it assumed that in the caseof war crimes testimonies gestures may be a direct translation of coded images andimpressions deprived of a linear narrative, and they may actively support the verbalizationof traumatic experiences that victims find difficult to put into words. The article discussesthe categories of gestures identified during the analysis, which are accompanied byphotographic material from selected testimonies.

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