Civilized Violence

Release on 2016-05-23 | by David Hansen-Miller

The films I discuss appear to represent and thrive upon social contests
concerning the exercise of civilized violence. In this way, they are symptomatic of
the subject's divided interests in civilized violence. Audience and text struggle to
reveal ...

Author: David Hansen-Miller
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781317165439
Category: Social Science
Page: 216
View: 421

Civilized Violence

Civilized Violence provides a social and historical explanation for the popular appeal of cinema violence. There is a significant amount of research on the effects of media violence, but less work on what attracts audiences to representations of violence in the first place. Drawing on historical-sociology, cultural studies, feminist and queer theory, masculinity studies and textual analysis, David Hansen-Miller explains how the exercise of violence has been concealed and denied by modern society at the same time that it retains considerable power over how we live our lives. He demonstrates how discourses of sexuality and gender, even romantic love, are freighted with the micropolitics of violence. Confronted with such contradictions, audiences are drawn to the cinema where they can see violence graphically restored to everyday life. Popular cinema holds the power to narrate and interpret social forces that have become too opaque, diffuse and dynamic to otherwise comprehend. Through detailed engagement with specific narratives from the last century of popular film - The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Sheik, Once Upon a Time in the West, Deliverance - and the pervasive violence of contemporary cinema, Hansen-Miller investigates the manner in which representations can transform our understanding of how violence works.

Language: en
Pages: 216

Civilized Violence

Authors: David Hansen-Miller

Categories: Social Science

Type: BOOK - Published: 2016-05-23 - Publisher: Routledge

Language: en
Pages: 224

Barbarians and Civilization in International Relations

Authors: Mark B. Salter

Categories: Political Science

Type: BOOK - Published: 2002-09-20 - Publisher: Pluto Press

The terrorist attacks in New York and Washington have led to popular conceptions of Muslims as terrorists. Some commentators have harked back to the 'Clash of Civilizations' argument outlined by Samuel Huntington which has become a touchstone in postcolonial studies. Huntington argued that, after the collapse of the Cold War,

Language: en
Pages: 160

Violence and Civilization

Authors: Roderick Campbell

Categories: Social Science

Type: BOOK - Published: 2013-12-31 - Publisher: Oxbow Books

This collection of essays begins with the premise that violence, in its relationship to order, is a central element of history. Taking a broad definition of violence, including structural and symbolic violence, the contributions move beyond the problematic of civilizationÕs mitigating or foundational role, instead seeing violence as inherently social,