JAMMO ISSN 2146-3328

Representation in media, literature, and war discourse plays a pivotal role in shaping public perceptions of suffering, victimhood, and agency. This study undertakes a comparative biographical analysis of Lilie Chouliaraki, Judith Butler, and Zoë Wicomb, examining how their works interrogate power, discourse, and suffering within the contexts of grievability, humanitarianism, post-humanitarianism, and mediatisation. Employing a qualitative discourse analysis and drawing on Chouliaraki’s theorisation of post-humanitarianism, Butler’s concept of grievability, and Wicomb’s interrogation of racial and gender identity in post-apartheid South Africa, the study explores the selective visibility of suffering. Integrating insights from Chouliaraki and Orgad’s work on proper distance in media ethics, Chouliaraki and Zaborowski’s analysis of the refugee crisis, and Chouliaraki’s vision of a cosmopolitan public, this article critically evaluates how media, literature, and philosophy construct narratives of suffering. The findings underscore the hierarchical structuring of voice and the systematic exclusion of certain subjects from public discourse, reinforcing dominant power structures.