In my diploma thesis, I test the claim that protest can be understood as a reading of the body. My starting point is a case study of the self-immolation of the Mahayana Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc in 1963, Saigon. I highlight some of the reactions to this event and contrast them with the letter of the monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who denied that the self-immolation was a protest or suicide. This ontological discrepancy motivated new research approaches. In order to show it as studyable, I thematize it by introducing the conceptual pair visible-invisible. I present a discussion by Mario Blaser that addresses the field of epistemology and ontology, also commenting on some fundamental theoretical approaches such as the ontological turn and cosmopolitics. I conclude that the body can be a good informant about itself and the events in which it is involved. The body is multiple, but not all its aspects are equally accessible. I find that the invisible – for example ontological – contents of an event are often overlooked, which I partially attribute to the nature of photography as a medium. On the other hand, the visible (more precisely the visual) is highly communicative in the case study, but such a reading of the body is often more reductionist. With the dissertation, I call for a methodological reflection on the research object, and as a possible solution I propose an ethnography of the visible and the invisible.
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