The Aesthetics of Violence - 9781786605030

The Aesthetics of ViolenceArt, Fiction, Drama and Film\nAuthor(s): Robert Appelbaum\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, United Kingdom\nImprint: Rowman & Littlefield International\nISBN-13: 9781786605030, 978-1786605030\nSynopsis\nViolence 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 .