At the Limit: Violence in Contemporary Representation
Course facts
- Payment: Free, no certificate
- Credits: Non Credit
- Learning style: Self-paced, start anytime
- Resources: Lecture Notes; Written Assignments
MIT OpenCourseWare details
- As taught in: Fall 2013
- Department: Comparative Media Studies/Writing, Literature
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Violence in novels and films since 1985: serial killers, masculinity, reality television and the viewer’s role. Contains disturbing material.
What, specifically, is violence, and is it a matter of a work’s content or of its form? This seminar presses that question through novels and films from roughly 1985 to 2010, from the US, France, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Japan and South Korea. It explores the politics and aesthetics of the extreme, including sensation, disgust and shock, and asks whether such works help us understand violence or show that it resists comprehension.
What You Will Achieve
- Practice close analysis of novels and films
- Write comparative essays with a thesis and textual evidence
- Consider critical theories of violence and representation
- Distinguish national contexts of violent representation
Program Overview
A Brief History of Violence
Terms, concepts and the American context.
- How to watch a film
- America the violent
- Serial killers: repetition and commodities
White Masculinity and the Marginalized
Who enacts and suffers violence on screen and page.
- White masculinity at the end of the century
- The underclass and the marginalized
- Girls, women and psychic assault
- Sex, desire and fragmentation
Television, Reality and Culpability
Media, form and the viewer’s own role.
- Gore, humor and cartoons
- Regarding the pain of others
- Is it the case that we are what we watch?
Course Completion
Job Outlook
This analysis supports further study and writing in film, literature and media studies.
Good for: Film and literature readers ready for rigorous analysis of disturbing works and the theory written about them.
Keep in mind: The works include graphic acts of rape, torture and brutality, and some films are rated NC-17; the instructor warns much is disturbing. You must obtain the films and four required books yourself.
Bottom line: A serious, demanding seminar on extreme art, with detailed lecture notes and a strong reading list.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the material graphic?
Yes. The instructor notes that the works include rape, torture, brutality and assault, that some films are rated NC-17, and that much of the material is disturbing.
Which books are required?
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, Frisk by Dennis Cooper, and Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag.
What papers are assigned?
Two short papers of four to five pages and a final paper of eight to ten pages, all comparative analytical essays with a list of topics to choose from.
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