The Aesthetics of Violence: Art, Fiction, Drama and Film

by Robert Appelbaum

Violence at an aesthetic remove from the spectator or reader has been a key element of narrative and visual arts since Greek antiquity. Here Robert Appelbaum explores the nature of mimesis, aggression, the effects of antagonism and victimization and the political uses of art throughout history. He examines how violence in art is formed, contextualised and used by its audiences and readers. Bringing traditional German aesthetic and social theory to bear on the modern problem of violence in art, Appelbaum engages theorists including Kant, Schiller, Hegel, Adorno and Gadamer. The book takes the reader from Homer and Shakespeare to slasher films and performance art, showing how violence becomes at once a language, a motive, and an idea in the experience of art. It addresses the controversies head on, taking a nuanced view of the subject, understanding that art can damage as well as redeem. But it concludes by showing that violence (in the real world) is a necessary condition of art (in the world of mimetic play).

196 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 30, 2017

Reviews

[Cecilie Larsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Læst i forbindelse med mit speciale. En interessant diskussion omkring det æstetiske ved vold i kunst. Rigtig god læsning!

[eleanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

i enjoyed this book, had some great insights into violence and how it’s aestheticised throughout art, but i was hoping that it’d help with my essay and it just didn’t at all. ALSO some of the examples were way too graphic and made me feel a bit ill