| This portfolio investigates the relationship between art and violence in imperial Western spaces. Building on the work of Roberto Esposito and Ernest Becker, I accept the fear of death as a primary motivator for the perpetuation of violence, but argue that this fear of death extends beyond the literal loss of life and includes metaphoric ideas of death, such as nothingness, and even cultural death. This compilation of essays privileges a myriad of philosophical and theoretical approaches including existentialism, phenomenology, biopolitics, post-colonial theory, and Nietzschean philosophy, and a wide array of texts, including: A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados, Tom Brown's Schooldays, Ascenseur Pour L'echafaud, L'armee Des Ombres, Silence de la Mer, Un Condamne a Mort s'est echappe ou Le vent Souffle ou il Veut, Bearheart: The Heirship Chronicles, Embassytown, and Always Coming Home. These essays reveal that within my chosen texts, violence is rarely enacted in response to an existential threat, but rather to perpetuate a certain idea of life. In each text, regardless of medium, violence is cast as necessary for the perpetuation of imperial cultures. Further, the violence in these texts is self-perpetuating, in the sense that it is presented as the response to violent imperialism as well. I explore the relationship between cultural metaphors and those cast as either perpetrators or victims of violence and further consider what metaphors might be used to reduce or end cultural violence. |
