Civilized Violence : Subjectivity, Gender and Popular Cinema

"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.

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 Civilized Violence provides a social and historical explanation for the popular appeal of cinema violence. Drawing on historical-sociology, cultural studies, feminist and queer theory, masculinity studies and textual analysis, Hansen-Miller explains how Modern society has concealed and denied the exercise of violence while retaining considerable power over how we live. Through engagement with specific narratives from the last century of film and the pervasive violence of contemporary cinema, Hansen-Miller investigates how representations can transform our understanding of how violence works Contents 6 Acknowledgements 8 Introduction 10 1 From Scaffold to Cinema: Violence as a Force of Subjection and Subjectivation 16 2 Violence and Clinical Authority in ‘The Aetiology of Hysteria’ and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 46 3 Violence and the Passage from Responsibility to Desire in The Sheik 74 4 The Death of Popular Sovereignty in Once Upon A Time In The West 106 5 Deliverance and its Uses: Subjectivity, Violence and Nervous Laughter 140 Conclusion: Gender and Pervasive Violence 170 Bibliography 192 Index 208 Provides a social and historical explanation for the popular appeal of cinema violence. Drawing on historical-sociology, cultural studies, feminist and queer theory, masculinity studies and textual analysis, this title explains how the exercise of violence has been concealed and denied by modern society.