Understanding Violence
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Edited by Marika Guggisberg and David Weir Understanding Violence At the Interface Series Editors Dr Robert Fisher Dr Nancy Billias Advisory Board Dr Alejandro Cervantes-Carson Martin McGoldrick Professor Margaret Chatterjee Revd Stephen Morris Dr Wayne Cristaudo Professor John Parry Mira Crouch Paul Reynolds Dr Phil Fitzsimmons Professor Peter Twohig Professor Asa Kasher Professor S Ram Vemuri Owen Kelly Revd Dr Kenneth Wilson, O.B.E A Probing the Boundaries research and publications project. http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/ The Hostility and Violence Hub ‘Violence and the Contexts of Hostility’ Understanding Violence: Contexts and Portrayals Edited by Marika Guggisberg & David Weir Inter-Disciplinary Press Oxford, United Kingdom © Inter-Disciplinary Press 2009 http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing/id-press/ The Inter-Disciplinary Press is part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net – a global network for research and publishing. The Inter-Disciplinary Press aims to promote and encourage the kind of work which is collaborative, innovative, imaginative, and which provides an exemplar for inter-disciplinary and multi- disciplinary publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of Inter-Disciplinary Press. Inter-Disciplinary Press, Priory House, 149B Wroslyn Road, Freeland, Oxfordshire. OX29 8HR, United Kingdom. +44 (0)1993 882087 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 1-904710-65-4 / 978-1-904710-65-3 First published in the United Kingdom in paperback in 2009. First edition. Table of Contents Preface Understanding Violence ix Marika Guggisberg and David Weir Section 1 Deconstructing Representations of Violence in Art, Literature, and the Media Post 9/11 and Screen Violence Gabrielle Murray 3 Arabs and Muslims in Hollywood: Breaking Down The Siege Kenza Oumlil 15 Nostalgic Violence? Neo-Victorian (Re-) Visions of Historical Conflict Marie-Luise Kohlke 25 Media, Women and Domestic Violence in Turkey Mine Gencel Bek and Abdülrezak Altun 39 Racist Violence Attacks on Foreigners, Mass-Media and Fear of Crime Hakan Arikan 45 Symbolic and Discursive Violence in Media: Representations of Aboriginal Missing and Murdered Women Yasmin Jiwani 63 Representations of Intimidation of and Violence against Women in Art from the 16th - 20th Centuries Dolores Villaverde Solar and Elena Alfaya Lamas 75 Representations of Violence in Contemporary South African Fiction Zuzana Luckay 83 Section 2 Ethnic-based Violence The Intimacy of Enmity: The Hezbollah-Israel Relation Daniel Meier 95 The Struggle for Survival and Security in the Middle East: An Ethnological Observation of Public Discourse in Israel Aide Esu 109 The Changing Logic of Political Violence: The Case of the PKK in Turkey after the Invasion of Iraq - Violence for Violence’s Sake Rasim Özgür Dönmez and Pınar Enneli 121 Printing a Pogrom: Violence and Print Communities in the Case of Captain Keller Roland Clark 133 Section 3 Subliminal Violence Preventing ‘Ideal’ Communication by Linguistic Violence Gabriela Scripnic, Alina Ganea and Anca Gâţă 151 The Promise of Violence: Closed Circuit Television and the Contemporary Construction of Governmentality Jeff Heydon 163 ‘Domesticating’ Violence in Interwar Romania Corina Pălăşan 173 ‘Resurrecting’ the Self: Atomising the Individual via Solitary Confinement Siyaves Azeri 189 Section 4 Victims of Violence Rape as a Weapon of War: The Long-Term Effects on Victims and Society Cassandra Clifford 205 Mental Health and Substance Use Problems: The ‘Invisible’ Scars of Intimate Partner Violence Victimisation Marika Guggisberg 223 How Does Mothers’ Sexual Abuse Trauma Beget Trauma in Daughters? The Constellation of Mother Complex Neringa Grigutytė 233 Powerful, Educated and Immune from Justice: Contemporary Cambodian Vitrioleuses Jane Welsh 243 The Land of Oz: Youth Gangs and Child Soldiers Melissa Zisler 253 Section 5 Attempts at Countering Violence Mashing Power: Musical Imaginings of the Unimaginable David Weir 267 Günter Grass - His Commitment Against Violence Cornelia Caseau 277 The Rhetoric of Violence in African Literature Oumar Diop 289 The Role of NGOs in Promoting Children’s Participation in Domestic Violence Prevention Monica Denomy 301 Notes on Contributors 311 Understanding Violence Marika Guggisberg and David Weir 1. Introduction Since the very dawn of time earthly existence has been inexorably attended by the threat of violence. Our distant nomadic ancestors endured the destructive wrath of intermittently unleashed elemental forces well before the commencement of civilisation. Yet the destruction wrought by fire, wind, water and earth, though it has remained spectacular in its scope and scale throughout the development of increasingly complex forms of human cohesion, is now secondary to the violence to which these forms have given rise. Within the social realm, violence is used in many different contexts, inflicting harm upon individuals, communities, cultures and physical environments.1 Indeed, violence appears to be omnipresent, underlying a host of individual, institutional and social practices in contemporary society. Violence takes many forms, some of them overt, and some less obvious. The use of ‘reasonable’ physical force under certain circumstances and within certain culturally defined norms has long been deemed appropriate by those empowered both to define those norms and to apply the force.2 However, what constitutes ‘reasonable’ force in one culture may not necessarily apply in another. Moreover, within any one culture, the question of when it is, or is not, permissible to use force, is dependent upon subjectivities that may be born of a variety of social, political, ideological and religious influences. Similarly, subjective understandings of what constitutes ‘appropriate’ behaviour in a particular situation inevitably lead to other, less overt forms of violence, which almost invariably tend to be constituted by some form of interference with the autonomy of individuals and/or communities. Questions then arise: when is violence deemed appropriate and reasonable and when does its use pose a problem for individuals, communities, and the environment? Violent acts and the variety of different forms of violence, its causes, consequences and developmental patterns have only recently come under the gaze of academia.3 Since then, these categories have formed the grounds for many different theoretical frameworks. More recently, the focus of attention has also been upon investigating opportunities to prevent the occurrence of violence. Given its global reach and multifarious expressions, the subject of violence invites study from a variety of perspectives and locations. An x Introduction ______________________________________________________________ interdisciplinary approach to collecting and analysing information on violence yields broader patterns of its occurrence, thereby allowing more insightful conceptualisations of its nature. Violence perpetrated against individuals, communities, and the environment is all too often condoned and reinforced by individuals in positions of power along with power structures, either implicitly or explicitly. Whether violence is embedded in racial, national or interpersonal disputes, or is enacted through representations in art, literature, or the media, its investigation from the perspectives of different disciplines provides opportunities to challenge myths and stereotypes held by scholars, professionals in the field and the public. Violence prevention must challenge the different contexts of violence, which is a goal we believe is achievable. Expanding the knowledge-base on violence and its prevention proceeds from a diverse set of papers that were presented at the 7th Probing the Boundaries - Violence in the Context of Hostility conference in Budapest, Hungary from 5 - 7 May 2008. This eBook provides a ‘snapshot’ of some of the papers as they were presented at the conference, which offered a platform for scholars from all over the world and multiple disciplines to consider both existing and potential problems and prevention efforts. It is our contention that from this convergence of scholarly thought upon the potential harmfulness of violence in all of its embodiments, both explicit and implicit, a better understanding of the many different forms and patterns of violence may be gained. This, we argue, may have implications for prevention and intervention efforts. From the vantage points of their respective disciplines, the authors represented in this eBook interrogated the logics of state-sanctioned violence, teased out translucent filaments of covertly exercised violence, and questioned the social and economic mechanisms by which violence is constructed and maintained. The articles presented here highlight some ongoing efforts to counter violence in its many forms. In doing so, they emphasise the need for communication between different disciplines on a global rather than a local level. From these articles it becomes evident that intervention and prevention efforts should be informed by evidence from different geographic locations and multiple disciplines, implying that interdisciplinary and international cooperation are key elements for developing strategies to combat violence in its various occurrences. 2. Overview of this eBook In Chapter 1, “Deconstructing