Horrorism

Naming Contemporary Violence

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Political, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Politics, History & Theory
Cover of the book Horrorism by Adriana Cavarero, Columbia University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Adriana Cavarero ISBN: 9780231519175
Publisher: Columbia University Press Publication: November 24, 2008
Imprint: Columbia University Press Language: English
Author: Adriana Cavarero
ISBN: 9780231519175
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication: November 24, 2008
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Language: English

Words like "terrorism" and "war" no longer encompass the scope of contemporary violence. With this explosive book, Adriana Cavarero, one of the world's most provocative feminist theorists and political philosophers, effectively renders such terms obsolete. She introduces a new word-"horrorism"-to capture the experience of violence.

Unlike terror, horrorism is a form of violation grounded in the offense of disfiguration and massacre. Numerous outbursts of violence fall within Cavarero's category of horrorism, especially when the phenomenology of violence is considered from the perspective of the victim rather than that of the warrior. Cavarero locates horrorism in the philosophical, political, literary, and artistic representations of defenseless and vulnerable victims. She considers both terror and horror on the battlefields of the Iliad, in the decapitation of Medusa, and in the murder of Medea's children. In the modern arena, she forges a link between horror, extermination, and massacre, especially the Nazi death camps, and revisits the work of Primo Levi, Hannah Arendt's thesis on totalitarianism, and Arendt's debate with Georges Bataille on the estheticization of violence and cruelty.

In applying the horroristic paradigm to the current phenomena of suicide bombers, torturers, and hypertechnological warfare, Cavarero integrates Susan Sontag's views on photography and the eroticization of horror, as well as ideas on violence and the state advanced by Thomas Hobbes and Carl Schmitt. Through her searing analysis, Caverero proves that violence against the helpless claims a specific vocabulary, one that has been known for millennia, and not just to the Western tradition. Where common language fails to form a picture of atrocity, horrorism paints a brilliant portrait of its vivid reality.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Words like "terrorism" and "war" no longer encompass the scope of contemporary violence. With this explosive book, Adriana Cavarero, one of the world's most provocative feminist theorists and political philosophers, effectively renders such terms obsolete. She introduces a new word-"horrorism"-to capture the experience of violence.

Unlike terror, horrorism is a form of violation grounded in the offense of disfiguration and massacre. Numerous outbursts of violence fall within Cavarero's category of horrorism, especially when the phenomenology of violence is considered from the perspective of the victim rather than that of the warrior. Cavarero locates horrorism in the philosophical, political, literary, and artistic representations of defenseless and vulnerable victims. She considers both terror and horror on the battlefields of the Iliad, in the decapitation of Medusa, and in the murder of Medea's children. In the modern arena, she forges a link between horror, extermination, and massacre, especially the Nazi death camps, and revisits the work of Primo Levi, Hannah Arendt's thesis on totalitarianism, and Arendt's debate with Georges Bataille on the estheticization of violence and cruelty.

In applying the horroristic paradigm to the current phenomena of suicide bombers, torturers, and hypertechnological warfare, Cavarero integrates Susan Sontag's views on photography and the eroticization of horror, as well as ideas on violence and the state advanced by Thomas Hobbes and Carl Schmitt. Through her searing analysis, Caverero proves that violence against the helpless claims a specific vocabulary, one that has been known for millennia, and not just to the Western tradition. Where common language fails to form a picture of atrocity, horrorism paints a brilliant portrait of its vivid reality.

More books from Columbia University Press

Cover of the book Nuclear North Korea by Adriana Cavarero
Cover of the book Why Only Art Can Save Us by Adriana Cavarero
Cover of the book Love, Amy by Adriana Cavarero
Cover of the book Why America Misunderstands the World by Adriana Cavarero
Cover of the book Voices of the Arab Spring by Adriana Cavarero
Cover of the book The Secret of the Totem by Adriana Cavarero
Cover of the book A Semite by Adriana Cavarero
Cover of the book Protection Amid Chaos by Adriana Cavarero
Cover of the book Fathering from the Margins by Adriana Cavarero
Cover of the book Wrestling with the Angel by Adriana Cavarero
Cover of the book Rural Social Work Practice by Adriana Cavarero
Cover of the book Hospitality of the Matrix by Adriana Cavarero
Cover of the book The Cinema of Béla Tarr by Adriana Cavarero
Cover of the book A Woman Soldier's Own Story by Adriana Cavarero
Cover of the book Russia and the Idea of the West by Adriana Cavarero
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy