Public spectacles of violence : sensational cinema and journalism in early twentieth-century Mexico and Brazil

In __Public Spectacles of Violence__ Rielle Navitski examines the proliferation of cinematic and photographic images of criminality, bodily injury, and technological catastrophe in early twentieth-century Mexico and Brazil, which were among Latin America’s most industrialized nations and later developed two of the region’s largest film industries. Navitski analyzes a wide range of sensational cultural forms, from nonfiction films and serial cinema to illustrated police reportage, serial literature, and fan magazines, demonstrating how media spectacles of violence helped audiences make sense of the political instability, high crime rates, and social inequality that came with modernization. In both nations, sensational cinema and journalism—influenced by imported films—forged a common public sphere that reached across the racial, class, and geographic divides accentuated by economic growth and urbanization. Highlighting the human costs of modernization, these media constructed everyday experience as decidedly modern, in that it was marked by the same social ills facing industrialized countries. The legacy of sensational early twentieth-century visual culture remains felt in Mexico and Brazil today, where public displays of violence by the military, police, and organized crime are hypervisible. Résumé en 4ème de couverture: "Rielle Navitski examines the proliferation of cinematic and photographic images of criminality, bodily injury, and technological catastrophe in early twentieth-century Mexico and Brazil, which were among Latin America's most industrialized nations and later developed two of the region's largest film industries. Navitski analyzes a wide range of sensational cultural forms, from nonfiction films and serial cinema to illustrated police reportage, serial literature, and fan magazines, demonstrating how media spectacles of violence helped audiences make sense of the political instability, high crime rates, and social inequality that came with modernization. In both nations, sensational cinema and journalism-influenced by imported films-forged a common public sphere that reached across the racial, class, and geographic divides accentuated by economic growth and urbanization. Highlighting the human costs of modernization, these media constructed everyday experience as decidedly modern, in that it was marked by the same social ills facing industrialized countries. The legacy of sensational early twentieth-century visual culture remains felt in Mexico and Brazil today, where public displays of violence by the military, police, and organized crime are hypervisible." Cover Contents A Note on Usage Acknowledgments Introduction Part I. Sensationalizing Violence in Mexico Chapter 1. Staging Public Violence in Porfirian and Revolutionary Mexico, 1896–1922 Chapter 2. On Location: Adventure Melodramas in Postrevolutionary Mexico, 1920–1927 Part II. Staging Spectacles of Modernity in Brazil Chapter 3. Reconstructing Crime in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, 1906–1913 Chapter 4. The Serial Craze in Rio de Janeiro, 1915–1924: Reception, Production, Paraliterature Chapter 5. Regional Modernities: Sensational Cinema Outside Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, 1923–1930 Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z Rielle Navitski examines the proliferation of cinematic and photographic images of violence in in early-twentieth-century Mexico and Brazil, showing how sensational media helped audiences make sense of the political instability, crime, violence, and change in daily life that accompanied modernization.