Graphic Violence Research Articles

The Images of The Feudal Societies in Vietnamese Literary Works: A Perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis

Purpose: This study aims to apply critical discourse analysis (henceforth CDA) to examine representations of feudalism in Vietnamese literary works. The discourse-historical approach (Wodak, 2009) and socio-cognitive framework (Van Dijk, 1993) guide an analysis of how linguistic strategies construct feudal portrayals and situate them within Vietnam's sociohistorical context. Methods: A corpus of five short stories (1930-1945) thematically depicting feudalism is compiled. Detailed textual analysis identifies metaphors, lexical choices, connotations and symbolic spaces that construct vivid feudal imagery portraying oppression and injustice. Results: Findings show the discourse utilizes techniques like animal metaphors, derogatory nouns, and graphic violence to dramatize the dehumanization and brutality endured by peasants under feudalism. This study demonstrates usefulness of CDA for elucidating the complex, nuanced ways literary discourse reproduces and contests dominant power structures and ideologies. Discussion: Findings provide deeper insight into linguistic strategies that critique yet inadvertently reinforce aspects of feudalism. The adoption of CDA can enrich Vietnamese literary scholarship by enabling a more critical examination of discursive constructions of identity, inequality and power relations.

Caring for screenagers (part 2): a pediatrician's primer on popular games and educational tools.

The internet has changed the way children can work and play. With the preferences of the youth population constantly evolving, it is important that parents and pediatricians continue to be informed of the ways children spend their time on the internet. Online gaming continues to soar in popularity, as does school usage of educational platforms. Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft are three examples of games that have widespread popularity among youth populations. Though none of the game are designed to display graphic violence, sexual content, or other features that could be considered off-limits for children, there still ways for children to exposed to inappropriate material or engage with strangers. The rise in popularity of eSports also reflects changing attitudes about the value of gaming. On the educational side, school-student platforms and powerful artificial intelligence (AI) tools are becoming more and more prevalent. Parents should not simply know which games or educational tools their children are using, but understand them. This article seeks to provide some insight into popular games and platforms so that parents and pediatricians can make better decisions about what children access.

It’s a Fine Line between Sadism and Horror

Much has been written about the puzzling aesthetic appeal of horror films that include scenes of brutal, graphic violence. More recently, however, some philosophers have proposed that viewing certain horror films as a source of entertainment is morally problematic because of the impact they might have on our moral psychology. By contrast, Ian Stoner argues that viewing fictional depictions of violence in horror films is not morally problematic because horror films do not present violence in ways that risk damaging the kinds of reactive attitudes required to exhibit a well-functioning moral psychology. In this paper I note some the ways in which Stoner is correct about horror films, yet I argue that he has overstated his case for the permissibility of viewing all instances of horrific violence as entertainment.

Colonising the narrative space: unliveable lives, unseeable struggles and the necropolitical governance of digital populations

ABSTRACT Social media platforms play a critical civic role during times of conflict, war, and crises as spaces for people to document and share content that publicises instances of human rights violations, graphic violence, and material destruction. Such content not only function as primary materials in the narration of social and political realities, but also operate as intense sites of control when platforms, state, and non-state actors seek to censor them for various political and opaque reasons. This article argues the gradually increasing intertwinement of corporate-government power, and the asymmetrical application of power to govern our lives in platform spaces, constitutes the necropolitical governance of digital populations. I delineate how the contours of platform necropolitics manifest through asymmetrical content moderation processes, platform policies, and alternative enforcement systems, and describe its operational registers: acts of commission (overenforcement), omission (underenforcement), and exceptionalism (extraordinary exceptions). The article’s theoretical resourcefulness and analytical significance is demonstrated through three qualitative case studies: 2021 Israeli–Palestinian conflict, ‘rest of the world’ counties, and 2022-ongoing Russian–Ukrainian War. The article problematises conventional understandings of necropolitics while providing nuanced conceptualisation into the narrative and curatorial power of corporate-government assemblages of control for digital subjects – especially those most at-risk.

Superheroes and Nazis: Re-examining the legacy of the Second World War in Eric Kripke’s The Boys

The television adaptation of The Boys, originally a comic book series written by Garth Ennis, has garnered attention for its graphic violence and satirical treatment of the superhero genre. The Boys engages with a number of critiques of the superhero genre and its tropes, one of which is the recurring presence of a Nazi supervillain. This article links The Boys to previous examples of comic books and screen adaptations which feature Nazis or similar fascist organizations, such as Captain America, Superman and X-Men. In particular, it argues that The Boys’s status as a subversive superhero narrative impacts the portrayal of Nazism in new ways, further troubling the distinction between superhero and supervillain and providing insight into contemporary cultural concerns. Through its representation of the superhero origin story and the Nazi character Stormfront, The Boys draws upon the memories of the Second World War in order to condemn the rise of fascism in the twenty-first century. Despite this ostensibly worthy goal, it is also important to consider criticisms of this type of representation of the historically specific atrocities of the Second World War, the role of exploitation and its resulting reception by viewers.

Graphic Violence on Social Media and Its Impact on Young Adults

Graphic Violence on Social Media and Its Impact on Young Adults

Less Punk, More Splatter: Heavy Metal, Horror Video, and the Literary Nasties of Shaun Hutson

Less Punk, More Splatter: Heavy Metal, Horror Video, and the Literary Nasties of Shaun Hutson

Visual Aggression: Images of Martyrdom in Late Medieval Germany

Visual Aggression: Images of Martyrdom in Late Medieval Germany

Sexual micropolitics: twisting lesbiana and cuir (queer) genealogies in contemporary Mexico City

This article explores the circulation of the terms lesbiana and queer (cuir) in Mexico City. More particularly, I discuss how de ambiente and la diversidad sexual, which capture the spirit of queer politics, predominated in the 1990s and early 2000s, to be surpassed by lesbiana in the 2010s, in lesbian communities. While the circulation of lesbiana parallels, permeates, and impregnates cuir genealogies too, I suggest here that its continuity, and stronger resurgence in the 2010s, relates to acute attention to structural violence in the region, particularly in the face of feminicides. At such moment young activists “twist” lesbiana genealogies to give place to new terms such as lesboterrorism. I pay particular attention to lesboterrorismo, a new theoretical formulation young activists developed in the midst of militarization, gore capitalism, and graphic violence against women’s bodies. This paper is informed by ethnographic fieldwork I have conducted since 2000, including participant observation, 40 qualitative interviews with women participating in lesbian spaces in Mexico City, and the review of newspapers.

1991 by Franck Thilliez

Reviewed by: 1991 by Franck Thilliez Nathalie G. Cornelius Thilliez, Franck. 1991. Fleuve, 2021. ISBN 978-2-265-14428-6. Pp. 504. Rather than being another detective thriller situated during our present time, the latest installment in the Franck Sharko/Lucie Henebelle series takes the reader decades into the past. Inspector Sharko, who was initially introduced in the 2003 debut Train d'enfer pour Ange rouge, and has been aging in real time since, appears in this literary time capsule as a thirty-year-old lieutenant freshly transferred to the Paris Brigade criminelle. In his world, the policewoman at 36, quai des Orfèvres is a groundbreaking novelty. Faxes and pay-phones are basic modes of communication. DNA profiling is just starting to gain ground and computerized criminal databases are virtually nonexistent. Binders and carbon paper are the standard for record-keeping. As the newest recruit, Sharko is relegated to the tedious task of reviewing the archives of a cold case of the brutal killing of several women in the south of Paris. Slogging through massive piles of paperwork, the eager lieutenant nevertheless takes to the trying task with assiduity. But Franck's real trial by fire comes when his team must track down an elusive murderer intent on perturbing the Parisians' present. Le Méticuleux, as the criminal is nicknamed, seems able to do the inexplicable. By somehow compelling an innocent citizen to uncover a shocking photograph through an anonymous letter and a copy of Baudelaire's Les fleurs du mal, the felon leads the police to a reclusive crime scene peppered with hidden clues in a room sealed from the inside. As the case evolves, a frustrated and exhausted Franck finds it increasingly difficult to compartmentalize his emotions. Ghosts from his past resurge, shedding light on the origins of Sharko's dogged determination to become a criminal investigator. Despite the graphic violence of some scenes, Thilliez's old-school procedural is thoroughly entertaining. The fast-paced, well-written plot immerses the reader in a foreboding atmosphere where mentalism, voodoo rituals, and Houdini's escapist illusions overlap, highlighting a time when intuition and emotion guided investigations more than in today's increasingly regimented and computerized police environment. The nostalgia elicited through the cultural and historical references to the early 1990s is an appealing escape from the contemporary reader's heavily computerized environment. As intimated by the novel's palindromic title, number games, magic tricks, and word play are the order of the day, although not as well-integrated and developed as in some of Thilliez's prior novels. Particularly appealing is the insertion of a preliminary mental exercise which gains relevance later as the investigation unfolds, while also cleverly demonstrating how society influences individual thought. The mystery's solution is satisfying as well, although somewhat predictable for those familiar with Thilliez's thrillers. As an entry-point into the author's universe, 1991 is an excellent choice. For avid fans, this novel finally answers some key questions about one of the best-known popular heroes of the French thriller. [End Page 261] Nathalie G. Cornelius Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Copyright © 2022 American Association of Teachers of French

“Real war ammunition:” Artists for Victory, the National War Poster Competition, and the Hostile Imagination on the United States World War II Home Front

“Real war ammunition:” Artists for Victory, the National War Poster Competition, and the Hostile Imagination on the United States World War II Home Front

Panoramas, Patriotic Voyeurism, and the “Indian Mutiny”

The panorama was from its outset a medium of contemporary history. This article examines its contribution to initial historical narratives about the “Indian Mutiny” (1857–58). Nineteenth-century critics often saw the form as voyeuristic, while modern scholars have critiqued its chauvinistic patriotism. The article uses panorama paratexts, adverts, and reviews to recover the visitor experience and to compare these with contemporary would-be historical accounts of the mutiny. I ask, Was it possible for panoramic representations of the mutiny to avoid jingoism? And what can this case study tell us about mid-nineteenth-century approaches to historical distance?My analysis of 1850s panoramas of the mutiny (by Burford, Hamilton, Marshall, and Gompertz) shows that when they depicted graphic violence, it did not suppress visitor numbers but did lead to accusations of voyeurism. Reviewers declared that the events were too temporally and emotionally proximate to be treated as history. Initial contemporary histories nonetheless borrowed from panoramic modes in their illustrations of the mutiny, making panoramas a means of mediating events into historical form. By the 1870s, concerns about voyeurism diminished but chauvinistic representation continued, as the episode ossified into a cultural myth. Chronological distance did not lead to greater openness but to more unquestioning jingoism.

From Alex to Riefenstahl: Nazism, propaganda, and Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971)

In this article I will argue that graphic violence, though an essential component of A Clockwork Orange, is a side effect of the film’s broader exploration of the subjectivity-sapping power of authoritarianism, and its cinematic correlative: propaganda. I will suggest that A Clockwork Orange may indeed be seen as a powerful reflection on the power of propaganda, through a strategy of mise en abyme of auctorial figures which forces the viewers to either submit to such figures, or to develop a critical resistance. In a first part, I draw on recent empirical studies based on archival material in order to delve into the history of Kubrick’s fascination with authoritarianism – especially Nazism – so as to argue that one of the director’s main source of interest in these regimes lied in their use of cinema to subjugate the masses. In the second part I draw on the narratological approach of Mario Falsetto, presenting the film as an interweaving of various auctorial figures struggling in order to gain directorial power and fascinate the viewers into submission, thus drawing attention for the need to establish a critical distance against all directorial figures, including the film’s own “master of images”. I will also draw on recent empirical approaches – most notably Filippo Ulivieri’s – in order to suggest that Kubrick’s own persona thus becomes part of such a reflection, as the director’s construction of his own image as a tyrannical figure encourages a certain state of submissive spectatorship later questioned by the film’s mise en abyme. Finally, I will discuss the film’s reception and argue that the debates surrounding A Clockwork Orange suggest Kubrick’s meta-filmic reflection on propaganda was misunderstood by a certain part of the public who, instead of developing a critical distance, either submitted to Alex’s worldview unquestioningly – hence the issue of copycat crimes – or, on the contrary, fully rejected the film as a depraved object, two attitudes that are antithetic to the critical distancing the film hoped to create.

SISTEM INFORMASI GRAFIK KEKERASAN TERHADAP PEREMPUAN DAN ANAK PADA BADAN PP,KB, & PA KABUPATEN BENER MERIAH BERBASIS WEB

The information system for graphic violence at the PP, KB, & PA Agency in Bener Meriah Regency is currently still using a manual system. So that the graphic information on violence in the Bener Meriah Regency PP, KB & PA Agency is not efficient. The web which has advantages and qualities in data collection and data calculation is catching up. With this system, it is easier for officers to collect and calculate data on violence against women and children.

All that glitters is not gold: Do movie quality and contents influence box-office revenues in China?

Economic policy reform that started in China in early 1980s also affected its movie industry. Like other sectors, movie industry is also not fully liberalized. The industry is required to ensure that movie contents are consistent with core socialist and cultural values and locally produced movies are also financially viable. However, cultural and politically motivated regulation can adversely affect box-office revenues. Using a recently available dataset, which covers the period of 2009–2018, we investigate the box-office performance of Chinese domestic movies. We start by examining the role of movie quality signals (such as star power, internet media evaluation and industry recognition) in our empirical analysis of the relationship between family-friendly content of movies and box-office revenues. We then match the movie contents with its financial performance records. Our novel approach reveals that the explicit sex and profanity in movies have a negative and statistically significant impact on box-office revenues, which confirms the role of cultural values in financial success of motion pictures in China. However, in the case of large-budget movies involving celebrity superstars, the violent and gore (graphic violence) content attracts viewers and hence the box-office revenue increases. Our work highlights the contradictory nature of China’s movie industry policy, which binds the industry to strict cultural and politically motivated regulation while insisting on financial success.

Writing from the gut: Embodied spectatorship and violence in contemporary Mexican cinema

A number of contemporary Mexican films have moved away from the direct portrayal of graphic violence on-screen, instead engaging with invisible, hard-to-represent aspects of systemic violence. This article brings together Deleuzian affect theory with cinematographic formalism to offer a new methodological approach to violence in cinema that draws from the critic’s own body and gut feelings. Through a case study of Tatiana non-fiction film Tempestad/Tempest, it suggests that the affective work of the film occurs not in the first moment of viewership, but rather after-the-fact by laying the groundwork for future resonances.

Violence and the Crisis of Identity in Flann O’Brien and Myles na gCopaleen

Focusing on the personae of Flann O’Brien and Myles na gCopaleen, this article examines a seemingly intractable inconsistency in Brian O’Nolan’s body of work: the early O’Brien novels are punctuated by extreme, murderous, graphic violence, while the voice in na gCopaleen‘s Cruiskeen Lawn is characterised by an urbane, decorous control. The essay deploys a Freudian understanding of the architecture of the psyche to explore these two opposing impulses within O’Nolan’s authorial ego. Reading O’Nolan in light of Freud’s comments on the creative process emphasises the extent to which the various personae producing the texts enact a drama of textual and authorial anxiety caused by the repressive and censorious cultural contexts to his oeuvre.

Социопатические аспекты ведения войны в террористической группировке «Исламское государство».

In modern publications on the activities of ISIS terrorist group, its ideology is most often viewed as a version of Islam, modified and distorted from the perspective of extremism. However, a perverse human nature, that can be defined as sociopathy, is also revealed in the nature of execu-tions by a number of ISIS fighters. The article presents the results of a medical and psychological analysis of the discourse of official information materials of this group, i. e. videos with graphic vio-lence. Analysis of these messages showed that they promote super-cruelty and revealed that execu-tioners take a delight therein. The materials contain, firstly, a self-presentation of a tendency to-wards sadism, secondly, a focus on attracting people with personal deformities to their ranks, and, thirdly, provoking manifestations of sadistic inclinations in people and changing the moral state of modern society. The article provides a psychological, psychiatric and legal assessment of ISIS execu-tioners.

Singing the News of Punishment

Abstract This article explores the pan-European phenomenon of the execution ballad, songs that told the news of true crimes and their punishment by public execution. Looking at examples across nine languages, from the sixteenth through the nineteenth century, this comparison reveals that these ballads share multiple features in textual content and format: a recognisable, formulaic narrative; sensationalist and emotive language; and a conservative perspective that confirms that the condemned is guilty and that ‘justice’ is being served. We also note key regional differences, such as in the use (or not) of contrafactum, the setting of new lyrics to familiar melodies, in the use of the first versus third person voice, and in the depiction of graphic violence, both of the crime committed and the execution. Ultimately, we argue for the existence of an almost universal tradition in Europe of how to sing the news of punishment.

Cutting to the Punch: Graphic Stunt Comedy and the Emergence of Crisis Slapstick

Abstract Slapstick is a mode of comedic performance whose definition has not changed much since the nineteenth century. Slaps, hits, kicks, punches, pratfalls, and other types of stage and screen violence appear to be violent and harmful. But these acts are eventually revealed and resolved to be simulative and harmless. The slapstick performer emerges, unscathed, as a required prerequisite for comedic catharsis to take place. However, the past three decades have seen a graphic, transgressive form of comedic violence emerge that challenges this understanding. Assaultive acts of self-harm performed by shock-comic performers such as Ralph “Cap'n Video” Zavadil, Tom Green, and Johnny Knoxville's Jackass crew deploy violence to transgress established screen boundaries and disrupt the norms of performance style. This subversive form of humor, which this article refers to as “crisis slapstick,” produces graphic violence as comedic shocks that break from traditional slapstick. Physical injuries, presented as comedic absurdity, critique rather than uphold the embedded presumptions of safe screen space and industrial professionalism established over decades of classic slapstick performance.