Violence, culture, and censure

the long version

Violence, Culture and Censure consists of a series of original and challenging essays reflecting upon the understanding and moral judgement of violence in the twentieth century. It shows that even serious violence is not a simple behavioural fact speaking for itself but a category of thought and practice deeply rooted in history, culture and society. Representing contemporary theoretical developments within sociological criminology, this book suggests that the twentieth century has thrown so much philosophical doubt over the idea that violence is unequivocally and always bad behaviour that the issue for many now concerns what violence means. The book is thus at the interface between sociology and cultural studies. Taking a range of examples, the authors illustrate the difficulties in defining and explaining violence outside of a theory of the censures which either inspire it or describe it, and thus the value of understanding its relation to cultural and historical context. They illustrate the uncomfortable proximity between practices of censured violence and the censorious violence of law and order. This dialectical theme is evidenced by studies of violence in areas of much contemporary interest including: sadomasochism, the Holocaust, Latin American dictatorships, the punishment of blacks in the USA, the content of Tarantino films, and the philosophy of violence.