De Maze à Guantánamo : réflexions sur la temporalité des grèves de la faim et la mort lente en détention

Abstract

This essay examines the ongoing hunger strikes at Guantánamo Bay detention camp through a comparative analysis of the infamous 1981 Irish hunger strike, during which ten Irish Republican prisoners would ultimately fast unto death. In particular, I analyse Steve McQueen’s 2008 film Hunger, which chronicles the protests that led to the eventual Republican death fast at the now demolished Maze prison in Northern Ireland. I argue that the film facilitates a unique temporal experience by which to engage with the political and corporeal stakes of hunger striking, and an opportunity to consider the present state of embodied protest at Guantánamo Bay, where since 2002 prisoners have been force-fed as punishment for hunger striking. I conclude the essay with a discussion about the current state of force-feeding at Guantánamo Bay, where the punitive administration of the feeding tube, I argue, remains a technological means by which to repress political and relational life at the camp.

Keywords

• hunger striking
• force-feeding
• embodied protest
• Guantánamo Bay
• visual culture