The American popular imagination has long portrayed World War II as the “good war,” fought by the “greatest generation” for the sake of freedom and democracy. Yet, combat films and other war media complicate this conventional view by indulging in explosive displays of spectacular violence. Combat sequences, Tanine Allison argues, construct a counter-narrative of World War II by reminding viewers of the war’s harsh brutality. Destructive Sublime traces a new aesthetic history of the World War II combat genre by looking back at it through the lens of contemporary video games like Call of Duty. Allison locates some of video games’ glorification of violence, disruptive audiovisual style, and bodily sensation in even the most canonical and seemingly conservative films of the genre. In a series of case studies spanning more than seventy years—from wartime documentaries like The Battle of San Pietro to fictional reenactments like The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan to combat video games like Medal of Honor—this book reveals how the genre’s aesthetic forms reflect (and influence) how American culture conceives of war, nation, and representation itself.

Drawing on the theories of Kant and Lacan, this book reveals how modernity's characteristic stance produces an infinitely demanding ethics and a traumatic sublime.

Picturing America argues that photography is a prevalent practice of making places, determining how we situate ourselves in the world. As a prime site of knowledge and change, it enacts our perception as well as transformative conception of American environments.

From the concert stage to the dressing room, from the recording studio to the digital realm, SPIN surveys the modern musical landscape and the culture around it with authoritative reporting, provocative interviews, and a discerning critical ear. With dynamic photography, bold graphic design, and informed irreverence, the pages of SPIN pulsate with the energy of today's most innovative sounds. Whether covering what's new or what's next, SPIN is your monthly VIP pass to all that rocks.

This open access book revises Kant’s ethical thought in one of its most notorious respects: its exclusion of animals from moral consideration. The book gives readers in animal ethics an accessible introduction to Kant’s views on our duties to others, and his view that we have only ‘indirect’ duties regarding animals. It then investigates how one would have to depart from Kant in order to recognise that animals matter morally for their own sake. Particular attention is paid to Kant’s ‘Formula of Humanity,' the role of autonomy and the moral law, as well as Kant’s notions of practical reason and animal instinct. The result is a deliberately amended version of Kantianism which nevertheless remains faithful to central aspects of Kant’s thought. The book’s final part illustrates the framework’s use in applied contexts, addressing the issues of using animals as mere means, the ethics of veganism and vegetarianism, and environmental protection. Nico Dario Müller shows how, when furnished with duties to animals, Kant's moral philosophy can be a powerful resource for animal ethicists.

Psychology in the Fiction of Henry James: Memory, Emotions, and Empathy focuses on the study of consciousness, also examines new ways to read fiction from a scientific perspective, one that draws upon early psychological theories and recent neuroscientific research. Freud and William James stand together as intellectual pioneers who contributed to our understanding of the revolutionary concept of consciousness. Meanwhile, Henry James devoted his life to the development of narrative methods that would extend the realm of Realism: a pursuit that led him to draw upon consciousness and experience alike. When examining these three figures, the key components of consciousness that they shared in common turn out to be memory, emotions, and empathy. This volume deals with theoretical works on those three concepts by the works of Freud, William James, and recent neuroscientists, as well as two narrative techniques Henry James devised to represent consciousness: ghosts and Free Indirect Discourse. Additionally, this book is an analysis of Henry’s major fictions to show how those scientific terms have been used to achieve a fresh reading of his novels. Overall, this volume demonstrates that the three components are elements in the dual-aspect monism that Freud proposed earlier.