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Author(s) -
Tess Scholfield-Peters
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
c i n d e r
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2209-7775
DOI - 10.21153/cinder2019art865
Subject(s) - dark tourism , empathy , compassion , performativity , representation (politics) , aesthetics , tourism , sociology , social media , psychology , social psychology , media studies , gender studies , art , political science , politics , law
This article explores the notion of empathy through the contemporary lens of social media performativity relating to ‘dark tourism’. Examining Auschwitz as a case study, the article explores the post-Holocaust idea that often this empathy is precarious and accompanied by performed authenticity.Through analysis, this article focuses on concepts of ‘dark tourism’, vicarious victimhood, conspicuous compassion, and self-representation, all portrayed through Instagram. It argues that ‘pilgrimages’ to dark sites of trauma act not only as memorialisation but as spaces of self-validation and representation.In the contemporary Western world, the distinction between ‘authentic’ empathy and conspicuous, socially informed performance is blurred as a result of digitisation and increased pressure on the individual to form empathic connections and then post about it online.