Self-immolation: Act-performance

Self-immolation is understood in this text as a public act of self-sacrifi ce and a type of altruistic
suicide. In order to capture its specifi city it seems necessary to employ a compound category of ‘act--performance’ because – on the one hand – it is an act of sacrifi cial suicide, and on the other – it is carried out publicly and demonstratively, like a performance (i.e. with attention to every element of the event, just as happens in other types of public performance). Acts of this type have become a part of the arsenal of peaceful protest activities since the second half of the twentieth century. Th is happened aft er the media publicized act-performance (11 June 1963) of Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Th ích Quảng Ðức, which becomes the main point of focus in this study.

Self-immolation is understood in this text as a public act of self-sacrifi ce and a type of altruistic
suicide. In order to capture its specifi city it seems necessary to employ a compound category of ‘act-performance’ because – on the one hand – it is an act of sacrifi cial suicide, and on the other – it is carried out publicly and demonstratively, like a performance (i.e. with attention to every element of
the event, just as happens in other types of public performance). Acts of this type have become a part of the arsenal of peaceful protest activities since the second half of the twentieth century. Th is happened aft er the media publicized act-performance (11 June 1963) of Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Th ích Quảng Ðức, which becomes the main point of focus in this study.