The Culture of Violence

Description

Central to his argument is the contention that, contrary to post-Enlightenment humanist, liberal and conservative thought, 'culture' does not necessarily stand in opposition to political inequality and social injustice, but may be complicit with the oppressive exercise of power. The book focuses on Shakespearean tragedy and on the historicism and culturalism of much present-day cultural theory. Barker's analysis moves dialectically backwards and forwards between these two moments in order to illuminate aspects of early modern culture, and to critique the ways in which the complicity between culture and violence has been occluded. Rejecting the tendency of both modernism and post-modernism to homogenise historical time, Barker argues for a genuinely new, 'diacritical' understanding of the violence of history.

First Sentence

Lear, the greatest of the mature tragedies, it is said, appears to begin on sovereign ground, secure in a seemingly untroubled first horizon.

Subjects

Other Editions

• The Culture of Violence: Essays on Tragedy and HistoryUniversity Of Chicago Press1994-01-01
• The culture of violenceManchester University Press1993-01-01
• The Culture of ViolenceUniversity Of Chicago Press1994-01-01
• The culture of violencePaperbackManchester University Press1994-01-21