The Pleasure of Punishment

by Magnus Hörnqvist

Based on a reading of contemporary philosophical arguments, this book accounts for how punishment has provided audiences with pleasure in different historical contexts. Watching tragedies, contemplating hell, attending executions, or imagining prisons have generated pleasure, according to contemporary observers, in ancient Greece, in medieval Catholic Europe, in the early-modern absolutist states, and in the post-1968 Western world. The pleasure was often judged morally problematic, and raised questions about which desires were satisfied, and what the enjoyment was like. This book offers a research synthesis that ties together existing work on the pleasure of punishment. It considers how the shared joys of punishment gradually disappeared from the public view at a precise historic conjuncture, and explores whether arguments about the carnivalesque character of cruelty can provide support for the continued existence of penal pleasure. Towards the end of this book, the reader will discover, if willing to go along and follow desire to places which are full of pain and suffering, that deeply entwined with the desire for punishment, there is also the desire for social justice. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, philosophy and all those interested in the pleasures of punishment.

174 pages, Hardcover

Published March 19, 2021

Reviews

[Bel Rodrigues · Rating 4 out of 5]

"in the act of cruelty the community refreshes itself and for once throws off the gloom of constant fear and caution. cruelty is one of the oldest festive joys of mankind."

(nietzsche) kk

[Amanda De Freitas · Rating 4 out of 5]

gente eu demorei p caralho ler este livro q vergonha... tipo, ano passado tava tentando ler o livro, ai inicio desse ano eu recomecei.
muito interessante e denso, apesar de ter termos novos e informações difíceis de acompanhar, o livro repete o que esta dizendo mais de uma vez de forma diferente para auxiliar na compreensão, achei isso muito bom. porém, apesar disso, sinto que não compreendi totalmente o que o livro tenta passar, e sinto que meu cerebro não guardou direito o que aprendi com ele, tenho que voltar nas minhas marcações para absorver o conhecimento