Twitchell begins the story in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the 'cheap thrills' available to mass audiences included bull-baiting and other blood sports, Punch-and-Judy shows, penny dreadfuls, and the illustrations of William Hogarth.

What is a suitable genre to describe the post-9/11 era mired in wars, violence, and unspeakable horror? What kind of literary expressions and techniques are appropriate to give voice to the prevalence of global anguish in the post-9/11 scenario? Is the Theatre of the Absurd a viable option for the expression of the incongruity of the unspeakable horror unleashed after 9/11? Is the term ‘absurd’ applicable to this era? If yes, in what terms is this applicable? This book tries to find answers to these questions and many more. It reflects on the epistemological shifts in the avant-garde tradition of the Theatre of the Absurd, its ongoing critical currency in contemporary history, and its changing contours in the post-9/11 plays of Rajiv Joseph, an emerging American dramatist. It establishes the continued relevance of the Theatre of the Absurd at the current juncture of human history.

"The Case for Television Violence is a dense, dry and devastating dissection that surely counts as one of the most important books about American culture to appear in the last decade." --Andrew O′Hehir, "The Myth of Media Violence," Salon.com, 3/17/05 The Case for Television Violence makes the provocative argument that television violence has been misinterpreted. Rather than undermining the social order, television supports it by providing a safe outlet for aggressive impulses. Media scholar Jib Fowles challenges the conventional wisdom by: 1) demonstrating that the scientific literature does not say what many believe it says; 2) calling attention to the viewing habits and behaviors of the reader and those the reader knows; 3) explaining that the anti-violence critique is most profitably understood as the signature issue in the conflict between high and popular culture and 4) situating the arrival of televised violence within the historical context of the disallowance of traditionally sanctioned targets of aggression. The Case for Television Violence will intrigue scholars and students of Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Politics and Mass Communication.

Graphic Violence provides an innovative introduction to the relationship between violence and visual media, discussing how media consumers and producers can think critically about and interact with violent visual content. It comprehensively surveys predominant theories of media violence and the research supporting and challenging them, addressing issues ranging from social learning, to representations of war and terrorism, to gender and hyper-masculinity. Each chapter features original artwork presenting a story in the style of a graphic novel to demonstrate the concepts at hand. Truly unique in its approach to the subject and medium, this volume is an excellent resource for undergraduate students of communication and media theory as well as anyone interested in understanding the causes and effects of violence in media.

American cinema has always been violent, and never more so than now: exploding heads, buses that blow up if they stop, racial attacks, and general mayhem. From slapstick's comic violence to film noir, from silent cinema to Tarantino, violence has been an integral part of America on screen. This new volume in a successful series analyzes violence, examining its nature, its effects, and its cinematic and social meaning.

A broad-ranging survey of violence in western Europe from the Reformation to the French Revolution. Julius Ruff summarises a huge body of research and provides readers with a clear, accessible, and engaging introduction to the topic of violence in early modern Europe. His book, enriched with fascinating illustrations, underlines the fact that modern preoccupations with the problem of violence are not unique, and that late medieval and early modern European societies produced levels of violence that may have exceeded those in the most violent modern inner-city neighbourhoods. Julius Ruff examines the role of the emerging state in controlling violence; the roots and forms of the period's widespread interpersonal violence; violence and its impact on women; infanticide; and rioting. This book, in the successful textbook series New Approaches to European History, will be of great value to students of European history, criminal justice sciences, and anthropology.

Essays reflecting on our understanding and moral judgement of violence. The essays argue that even serious violence is not a simple fact, but a category of thought and practice rooted in history, culture and society.