Political Torture In Popular Culture

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Political Torture in Popular Culture

Author : Alex Adams
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317289390
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (172 download)

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Book Synopsis Political Torture in Popular Culture by : Alex Adams

Download or read book Political Torture in Popular Culture written by Alex Adams and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-17 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Political Torture in Popular Culture argues that the literary, filmic, and popular cultural representation of political torture has been one of the defining dimensions of the torture debate that has taken place in the course of the post-9/11 global war on terrorism. The book argues that cultural representations provide a vital arena in which political meaning is generated, negotiated, and contested. Adams explores whether liberal democracies can ever legitimately perpetrate torture, contrasting assertions that torture can function as a legitimate counterterrorism measure with human rights-based arguments that torture is never morally permissible. He examines the philosophical foundations of pro- and anti-torture positions, looking at their manifestations in a range of literary, filmic and popular cultural texts, and assesses the material effects of these representations. Literary novels, televisual texts, films, and critical theoretical discourse are all covered, focusing on the ways that aesthetic and textual strategies are mobilised to create specific political effects. This book is the first sustained analysis of the torture debate and the role that cultural narratives and representations play within it. It will be of great use to scholars interested in the emerging canon of post-9/11 cultural texts about torture, as well as scholars and students working in politics, history, geography, human rights, international relations, and terrorism studies, literary studies, cultural studies, and film studies.

Screening Torture

Author : Michael Flynn
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231153597
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

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Book Synopsis Screening Torture by : Michael Flynn

Download or read book Screening Torture written by Michael Flynn and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before 9/11, films addressing torture outside of the horror/slasher genre depicted the practice in a variety of forms. In most cases, torture was cast as the act of a desperate and depraved individual, and the viewer was more likely to identify with the victim rather than the torturer. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, scenes of brutality and torture in mainstream comedies, dramatic narratives, and action films appear for little other reason than to titillate and delight. In these films, torture is devoid of any redeeming qualities, represented as an exercise in brutal senselessness carried out by authoritarian regimes and institutions. This volume follows the shift in the representation of torture over the past decade, specifically in documentary, action, and political films. It traces and compares the development of this trend in films from the United States, Europe, China, Latin America, South Africa, and the Middle East. Featuring essays by sociologists, psychologists, historians, journalists, and specialists in film and cultural studies, the collection approaches the representation of torture in film and television from multiple angles and disciplines, connecting its aesthetics and practices to the dynamic of state terror and political domination.

Politics and Popular Culture

Author : Leah A. Murray
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1443823112
Total Pages : 225 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (438 download)

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Book Synopsis Politics and Popular Culture by : Leah A. Murray

Download or read book Politics and Popular Culture written by Leah A. Murray and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2010-06-09 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years we have seen a continuation and perhaps even acceleration in the trend of popular culture having a discernible effect on politics. From The Daily Show to candidates’ use of Facebook and MySpace, politics have opened up to new technologies as we come online for the next generation. Our political world has become popularized, or our popular world has become politicized in a new way, facilitated by the entertainment media and new technologies. This volume’s authors attempt to make sense of the changing political popular world through a series of interdisciplinary essays that explore the ramifications of popular cultural depictions of politics drawing on literature in a variety of fields: political science, history, literature, fine arts and communications. We explore three major phenomena in a politicized popular culture. First, we explore the role that the entertainment media play in understanding politics. What is interesting about our fictional political worlds is we are allowed, as a people, to consider different political ideals without the baggage of our last vote or our ideology. We can step outside ourselves and challenge the way we think on particular issues. Second, we explore the real world of politics as it has been shaped over the last century of new technology. As powerful a medium television proved to be to politics, the latest technological breakthroughs have proved to be a paradigmatic shift. From Twitter to Facebook, our politicians are able to keep in almost constant contact with their constituencies, which has vast implications for the way political discourse will progress. Third, we explore what happens when the real world and media collide. Entertainment media change their messages when major political events happen such as the case when spymaster tropes were forced to evolve when 9/11 changed the international dynamic. Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne series had to be conceptualized on film in a new way after this event. The more connected our political world and our popular world become, and given the trends, we can only assume they will become increasingly intertwined, the more important it is for us to understand how these connections affect the world. This volume is a powerful pass at comprehending all that is happening across the politicized popular world.

Invisibilities of Political Torture

Author : Berenike Jung
Publisher : Edinburgh University Press
ISBN 13 : 147443701X
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (744 download)

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Book Synopsis Invisibilities of Political Torture by : Berenike Jung

Download or read book Invisibilities of Political Torture written by Berenike Jung and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-06 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the ways in which moving images can help us better understand factual political tortureExamines role of images and film in (mis)understanding of tortureOffers synergised knowledge through comparative angle, exploring differences and continuities of torture cases which were documented to vastly different extentsIncludes key popular movies, independent films as well as serial televisionCombines serious film analysis with ethical-political questions and historically and theoretically informed researchExpands on the latest developments of comparative media scholarship, and integrates the nostalgic, material and affective "e;turn."e; Academic work on the subject of torture tends to mirror public debates on its presumed utility, to focus on its historically 'correct' representation or on profilmic structures of identification. This book moves beyond these ideologically charged questions to explore how contemporary films have responded to a growing popular distrust in visual evidence when referencing factual cases of torture. Two cases studies - the United States around 2004 and Chile from 1973 until the end of the dictatorship - provide either an abundance or lack of such visual evidence. Drawing on films and television series such as Zero Dark Thirty (2012), NO (2012), Homeland (2011-) and Los 80 (2008-14), amongst many others, this book analyses the visible components of torture but also its invisibilities. By casting a wider net on the definition of torture, the author promotes a radical, theoretical reframing of our concept of torture and suggests that audiovisual products can help broaden our comprehension of torture as an event which includes collective and emotional dimensions and long-term social effects.

Modern Dystopian Fiction and Political Thought

Author : Adam Stock
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 131732692X
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (173 download)

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Book Synopsis Modern Dystopian Fiction and Political Thought by : Adam Stock

Download or read book Modern Dystopian Fiction and Political Thought written by Adam Stock and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-10-16 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past few years, ‘dystopia’ has become a word with increasing cultural currency. This volume argues that we live in dystopian times, and more specifically that a genre of fiction called "dystopia" has, above others, achieved symbolic cultural value in representing fears and anxieties about the future. As such, dystopian fictions do not merely mirror what is happening in the world: in becoming such a ready referent for discussions about such varied topics as governance, popular culture, security, structural discrimination, environmental disasters and beyond, the narrative conventions and generic tropes of dystopian fiction affect the ways in which we grapple with contemporary political problems, economic anxieties and social fears. The volume addresses the development of the narrative methods and generic conventions of dystopian fiction as a mode of socio-political critique across the first half of the twentieth century. It examines how a series of texts from an age of political extremes contributed to political discourse and rhetoric both in its contemporary setting and in the terms in which we increasingly cast our cultural anxieties. Focusing on interactions between temporality, spatiality and narrative, the analysis unpicks how the dystopian interacts with social and political events, debates and ideas, Stock evaluates modern dystopian fiction as a historically responsive mode of political literature. He argues that amid the terrors and upheavals of the first half of the twentieth century, dystopian fiction provided a unique space for writers to engage with historical and contemporary political thought in a mode that had popular cultural appeal. Combining literary analysis informed by critical theory and the history of political thought with archival-based historical research, this volume works to shed new light on the intersection of popular culture and world politics. It will be of interest to students and scholars in literary studies, cultural and intellectual history, politics and international relations.

Punishment in Popular Culture

Author : Austin Sarat
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 1479861952
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (798 download)

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Book Synopsis Punishment in Popular Culture by : Austin Sarat

Download or read book Punishment in Popular Culture written by Austin Sarat and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2015-06-05 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Resource added for the Criminal Justice – Law Enforcement 105046 and Professional Studies 105045 programs.

The International Politics of Fashion

Author : Andreas Behnke
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317656229
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (176 download)

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Book Synopsis The International Politics of Fashion by : Andreas Behnke

Download or read book The International Politics of Fashion written by Andreas Behnke and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07-07 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book seeks to address and fill a puzzling omission in contemporary critical IR scholarship. Following on from the aesthetic turn in IR, critical and ‘postmodern’ IR has produced an impressive array of studies into movies, literature, music and art and the way these media produce, mediate, and represent international politics. By contrast, the proponents of the aesthetic turn have overlooked fashion as a source of knowledge about global politics. Yet stories about the political role of fashion abound in the news media. Margaret Thatcher used dress to define her political image, and more recently the fascination with Michelle Obama, Carla Bruni and other women in similar positions, and the discussions about the appropriateness of their wardrobes, regularly makes the news. In Sudan, a female writer and activist successfully challenged the government over her right to wear trousers in public and in Europe, the debate on women’s headscarves has politicised a garment item and turned it into a symbol of fundamentalism and oppression. In response, the contributors to this book investigate the politics of fashion from a variety of perspectives, addressing theoretical as well as empirical issues, establishing the critical study of fashion and its protagonists as a central contribution to the aesthetic turn in international politics. The politics of fashion go beyond these examples of the uses and abuses of textiles and fabrics for political purposes, extending into its very ‘grammar’ and vocabulary. This book will be a unique contribution to the field and will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, critical IR theory and popular culture and world politics.

Surveillance, Race, Culture

Author : Susan Flynn
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319779389
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (197 download)

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Book Synopsis Surveillance, Race, Culture by : Susan Flynn

Download or read book Surveillance, Race, Culture written by Susan Flynn and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-07-31 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays engages with a wide range of disciplines including art, performance, film and literature, to examine the myriad effects of contemporary surveillance on our cultural psyche. The volume expertly articulates the manner in which cultural productions have been complicit in watching, seeing and purporting to ‘know’ race. In our increasingly mediated world, our sense of community is becoming progressively virtual, and surveillant technologies impact upon subjectivity, resulting in multiple forms of artistic and cultural expression. As such, art, film, and literature provide a lens for the reflection of sociocultural concerns. In Surveillance, Race, Culture Flynn and Mackay skilfully draw together a diverse range of contributions to investigate the fundamental question of exactly how surveillant technologies have informed our notions of race, identity and belonging.

Encyclopedia of Politics, the Media, and Popular Culture

Author : Tony Kelso
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0313343802
Total Pages : 417 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (133 download)

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Book Synopsis Encyclopedia of Politics, the Media, and Popular Culture by : Tony Kelso

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Politics, the Media, and Popular Culture written by Tony Kelso and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-10-15 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether it's television, radio, concerts, live appearances by comedians, Internet websites, or even the political party conventions themselves, the mixing of politics and popular culture is frequently on display. The Encyclopedia of Politics, the Media, and Popular Culture examines the people, major events, media, and controversies in eight thematic chapters and over 150 entries to provide an invaluable resource for any student, scholar, or everyday political junkie needing a comprehensive introduction to the subject. On a typical weeknight in the United States, millions shun the traditional evening network news broadcasts and, instead, later grab their remotes to turn to Comedy Central to catch up on the political happenings of the day, delivered by the comedian Jon Stewart on the faux news program, The Daily Show. Immediately afterwards, they might stay tuned to The Colbert Report for another dosage of hilarious, fake news that, to them, comes across more honestly than the serious version they could watch on CNN. Whether it's television, radio, concerts, live appearances by comedians, Internet websites, or even the political party conventions themselves, the mixing of politics and popular culture is frequently on display. The Encyclopedia of Politics, the Media, and Popular Culture provides in-depth coverage of these fascinating, and often surprising intersections in both historical and contemporary culture. This highly readable and entertaining encyclopedia provides a sweeping survey of the historic and ongoing interplay between politics, the media, and popular culture in eight thought-provoking chapters. The volume is enhanced with the inclusion of over 150 entries to help students and researchers easily locate more in-depth information on topics ranging from political scandals to YouTube.

Terrorism and the Politics of Fear

Author : David L. Altheide
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1442274522
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (422 download)

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Book Synopsis Terrorism and the Politics of Fear by : David L. Altheide

Download or read book Terrorism and the Politics of Fear written by David L. Altheide and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-06-27 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thoughtful text demonstrates how the mass media constructs a politics of fear in the United States. Using a social interactionist perspective, the chapters examines such issues as the expansion of surveillance on the Internet, the construction of a terrorism-fighting hero to promote patriotism, the use of social media by terror groups, the fear of the other fostered by the refugee crisis and western radicalization, as well as the mass-mediated reaction to recent terrorist attacks. Also covered are the politics of fear involving disease (Ebola, Zika), social control efforts, and harsh attacks on American governmental officials for not keeping people safe from harm. All chapters in this new edition have been updated with descriptions and relevant analysis of significant events, including two Israeli-Hamas wars, terrorism attacks (e.g., Boston Marathon, Charlie Hebdo, San Bernadino, etc.), global reactions—often hostility—to refugees in the United States and especially Europe, the development of ISIS, surveillance (Wiki Leaks, Snowden, NSA), and the growing significance of social media. The text explains how the social construction of fear is used to steer public and foreign policy, arguing that security policies to protect the citizenry from violence have become control systems that most often curtail privacy and civil liberties.

Torture and Impunity

Author : Alfred W. McCoy
Publisher : University of Wisconsin Pres
ISBN 13 : 0299288536
Total Pages : 423 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (992 download)

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Book Synopsis Torture and Impunity by : Alfred W. McCoy

Download or read book Torture and Impunity written by Alfred W. McCoy and published by University of Wisconsin Pres. This book was released on 2012-08-24 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many Americans have condemned the “enhanced interrogation” techniques used in the War on Terror as a transgression of human rights. But the United States has done almost nothing to prosecute past abuses or prevent future violations. Tracing this knotty contradiction from the 1950s to the present, historian Alfred W. McCoy probes the political and cultural dynamics that have made impunity for torture a bipartisan policy of the U.S. government. During the Cold War, McCoy argues, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency covertly funded psychological experiments designed to weaken a subject’s resistance to interrogation. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the CIA revived these harsh methods, while U.S. media was flooded with seductive images that normalized torture for many Americans. Ten years later, the U.S. had failed to punish the perpetrators or the powerful who commanded them, and continued to exploit intelligence extracted under torture by surrogates from Somalia to Afghanistan. Although Washington has publicly distanced itself from torture, disturbing images from the prisons at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are seared into human memory, doing lasting damage to America’s moral authority as a world leader.

Popular Culture and the Political Values of Neoliberalism

Author : George A. Gonzalez
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1498591868
Total Pages : 120 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (985 download)

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Book Synopsis Popular Culture and the Political Values of Neoliberalism by : George A. Gonzalez

Download or read book Popular Culture and the Political Values of Neoliberalism written by George A. Gonzalez and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-02-01 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reality is made up of absolute and casualty ideals. This book analyzes the lower aspects of absolute ideals that result in personal and social dysfunction and the ultimate end of civilization. Conversely, a society based on casualty and justice is stable and vibrant. It is a classless society, free of gender and ethnic biases.

The Torture Letters

Author : Laurence Ralph
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022672980X
Total Pages : 267 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (267 download)

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Book Synopsis The Torture Letters by : Laurence Ralph

Download or read book The Torture Letters written by Laurence Ralph and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-01-15 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Torture is an open secret in Chicago. Nobody in power wants to acknowledge this grim reality, but everyone knows it happens—and that the torturers are the police. Three to five new claims are submitted to the Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission of Illinois each week. Four hundred cases are currently pending investigation. Between 1972 and 1991, at least 125 black suspects were tortured by Chicago police officers working under former Police Commander Jon Burge. As the more recent revelations from the Homan Square “black site” show, that brutal period is far from a historical anomaly. For more than fifty years, police officers who took an oath to protect and serve have instead beaten, electrocuted, suffocated, and raped hundreds—perhaps thousands—of Chicago residents. In The Torture Letters, Laurence Ralph chronicles the history of torture in Chicago, the burgeoning activist movement against police violence, and the American public’s complicity in perpetuating torture at home and abroad. Engaging with a long tradition of epistolary meditations on racism in the United States, from James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time to Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me, Ralph offers in this book a collection of open letters written to protesters, victims, students, and others. Through these moving, questing, enraged letters, Ralph bears witness to police violence that began in Burge’s Area Two and follows the city’s networks of torture to the global War on Terror. From Vietnam to Geneva to Guantanamo Bay—Ralph’s story extends as far as the legacy of American imperialism. Combining insights from fourteen years of research on torture with testimonies of victims of police violence, retired officers, lawyers, and protesters, this is a powerful indictment of police violence and a fierce challenge to all Americans to demand an end to the systems that support it. With compassion and careful skill, Ralph uncovers the tangled connections among law enforcement, the political machine, and the courts in Chicago, amplifying the voices of torture victims who are still with us—and lending a voice to those long deceased.

Narratives of Hurricane Katrina in Context

Author : Arin Keeble
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3030163539
Total Pages : 136 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (31 download)

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Book Synopsis Narratives of Hurricane Katrina in Context by : Arin Keeble

Download or read book Narratives of Hurricane Katrina in Context written by Arin Keeble and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-05-29 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes six key narratives of Hurricane Katrina across literature, film and television from the literary fiction of Jesmyn Ward to the cinema of Spike Lee. It argues that these texts engage with the human tragedy and political fallout of the Katrina crisis while simultaneously responding to issues that have characterized the wider, George W. Bush era of American history; notably the aftermath of 9/11 and ensuing War on Terror. In doing so it recognizes important challenges to trauma studies as an interpretive framework, opening up a discussion of the overlaps between traumatic rupture and systemic or, “slow violence.”

Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism

Author : Henry A. Giroux
Publisher : Peter Lang
ISBN 13 : 9781433112263
Total Pages : 186 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (122 download)

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Book Synopsis Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism by : Henry A. Giroux

Download or read book Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism written by Henry A. Giroux and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2011 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism capitalizes upon the popularity of zombies, exploring the relevance of the metaphor they provide for examining the political and pedagogical conditions that have produced a growing culture of sadism, cruelty, disposability, and death in America. The zombie metaphor may seem extreme, but it is particularly apt for drawing attention to the ways in which political culture and power in American society now operate on a level of mere survival. This book uses the metaphor not only to suggest the symbolic face of power: beginning and ending with an analysis of authoritarianism, it attempts to mark and chart the visible registers of a kind of zombie politics, including the emergence of right-wing teaching machines, a growing politics of disposability, the emergence of a culture of cruelty, and the ongoing war being waged on young people, especially on youth of color. By drawing attention to zombie politics and authoritarianism, this book aims to break through the poisonous common sense that often masks zombie politicians, anti-public intellectuals, politics, institutions, and social relations, and bring into focus a new language, pedagogy, and politics in which the living dead will be moved decisively to the margins rather than occupying the very center of politics and everyday life.

A Companion to Motion Pictures and Public Value

Author : Mette Hjort
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1119677122
Total Pages : 586 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (196 download)

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Book Synopsis A Companion to Motion Pictures and Public Value by : Mette Hjort

Download or read book A Companion to Motion Pictures and Public Value written by Mette Hjort and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2022-03-03 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A singular collection of original essays exploring the varied intersections of motion pictures and public value A Companion to Motion Pictures and Public Value presents a cross-disciplinary investigation of the past, present, and possible future contributions of the moving image to the public good. This unique volume explores the direct and indirect public value developed through motion pictures of different types, genres, and screening sites. Essays by world-renowned scholars from diverse disciplines present original conceptual work, philosophical arguments, historical discussion, empirical research, and specific case studies. Divided into seven thematically organized sections, the Companion identifies the various kinds of values that motion pictures can deliver, amongst them artistic, ethical, environmental, cultural, political, cognitive, and spiritual value. Each section includes an introduction in which the editors outline main themes and highlight connections between individual chapters. Throughout the text, probing essays interrogate the issue of public value as it relates to the cinema and provide insight into how motion pictures play a positive role in human life and society. Featuring original research essays on a pioneering topic, this innovative reference text: Brings together work by expert authors in disciplines such as Philosophy, Political Science, Cultural Studies, Film Studies, Sociology, and Environmental Studies Discusses a variety of institutional landscapes, policy formations, and types and styles of filmmaking Provides wide and inclusive coverage of cinema’s relation to public value in Africa, Asia, China, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas Explores the role of motion pictures in community formation, nation building, and the construction of good societies Covers new and emerging topics such as cinema-based fields focused on health and wellbeing A Companion to Motion Pictures and Public Value is an ideal textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, and is a valuable resource for scholars across a variety of disciplines

Torture and Democracy

Author : Darius Rejali
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400830877
Total Pages : 865 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis Torture and Democracy by : Darius Rejali

Download or read book Torture and Democracy written by Darius Rejali and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-08 with total page 865 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the most comprehensive, and most comprehensively chilling, study of modern torture yet written. Darius Rejali, one of the world's leading experts on torture, takes the reader from the late nineteenth century to the aftermath of Abu Ghraib, from slavery and the electric chair to electrotorture in American inner cities, and from French and British colonial prison cells and the Spanish-American War to the fields of Vietnam, the wars of the Middle East, and the new democracies of Latin America and Europe. As Rejali traces the development and application of one torture technique after another in these settings, he reaches startling conclusions. As the twentieth century progressed, he argues, democracies not only tortured, but set the international pace for torture. Dictatorships may have tortured more, and more indiscriminately, but the United States, Britain, and France pioneered and exported techniques that have become the lingua franca of modern torture: methods that leave no marks. Under the watchful eyes of reporters and human rights activists, low-level authorities in the world's oldest democracies were the first to learn that to scar a victim was to advertise iniquity and invite scandal. Long before the CIA even existed, police and soldiers turned instead to "clean" techniques, such as torture by electricity, ice, water, noise, drugs, and stress positions. As democracy and human rights spread after World War II, so too did these methods. Rejali makes this troubling case in fluid, arresting prose and on the basis of unprecedented research--conducted in multiple languages and on several continents--begun years before most of us had ever heard of Osama bin Laden or Abu Ghraib. The author of a major study of Iranian torture, Rejali also tackles the controversial question of whether torture really works, answering the new apologists for torture point by point. A brave and disturbing book, this is the benchmark against which all future studies of modern torture will be measured.