Abstract Continuous trauma syndrome (CTS) is the foundation for the characters in the film Impunity. The aesthetic choices in the narrative structure are an exploration of the discursive nature of violence and trauma in contemporary South African society. The theorising of continuous stress trauma provides the necessary challenge to the more conventional understanding of post-traumatic stress syndrome and informs the underlying analysis of the film. This analysis is offered in an interlocutory manner with psychology theorist Garth Stevens who provides a hermeneutic reading of Impunity that draws directly from his own research and others in the field of psychology. The paper is offered as an examination of an artistic research, film practice. The practice itself constitutes a theoretical expression which connects the aesthetic and structural choices of the film with the disciplinary observations made by Stevens. It suggests two theoretical approaches from different disciplines brought in conversation with each other to inform the reading of Impunity as artistic expression. The paper puts at its centre the discursive approach to the study of violence and trauma to suggest how the film’s structure and its aesthetics may be connected to research in the field of psychology.

中文翻译：

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痛苦的快乐：有罪不罚中社会心理创伤的政治与美学

摘要 连续性创伤综合症（CTS）是电影《有罪不罚》中人物的基础。叙事结构中的审美选择是对当代南非社会暴力和创伤的话语本质的探索。持续压力创伤的理论化为对创伤后压力综合症的更传统理解提供了必要的挑战，并为电影的基本分析提供了信息。这种分析是与心理学理论家加思·史蒂文斯（Garth Stevens）以中间方式提供的，后者直接从他自己的研究和心理学领域的其他研究中汲取了对有罪不罚的解释性解读。该论文是作为对艺术研究和电影实践的检查而提供的。实践本身构成了一种理论表达，它将电影的美学和结构选择与史蒂文斯的学科观察联系起来。它提出了来自不同学科的两种理论方法，它们相互对话，以告知将有罪不罚现象解读为艺术表现形式。该论文将研究暴力和创伤的话语方法置于其中心，以表明电影的结构及其美学如何与心理学领域的研究联系起来。