Introduction Emmanouil Aretoulakis 1. The aesthetic and the terrorizing–opening Pandora’s terror box with aesthetic tools The publication of a special volume on such a thorny and controversial topic as the affinity between aesthetics and terrorism is not just timely but long overdue. The first decade of the twenty-first century witnessed the steep rise of […]
Category: Special Volume 7 (2019)
Aesthetics and Terrorism
The Aesthetics of Terrorism and the Temporalities of Representation
The Aesthetics of Terrorism and the Temporalities of Representation Robert Appelbaum Abstract Representations of terrorism, in fiction and non-fiction, summon their readers and viewers to examine terrorism in any of at least four modes of temporality: the past, the past perfect, the continuous present, and the simple present. This essay explains those modalities and […]
ISIS and Futurist Terrorism Versus Cyberpunk
ISIS and Futurist Terrorism Versus Cyberpunk Thorsten Botz-Bornstein Abstract The origin of science fiction is twentieth-century Futurism. For the largest part of the twentieth century, science fiction maintained an optimistic attitude towards the future. At the end of the 1970s, the modern, optimistic, and futurist vision of the future, typical for avant-garde movements of […]
Dismantling Bodies: The War on Terror, and the Wound Aesthetic of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000-2015)
Dismantling Bodies: The War on Terror, and the Wound Aesthetic of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000-2015) Christopher J. Davies  Abstract This paper interrogates the aesthetic signature of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000-2015). Utilizing a selection of representative episodes airing during George W. Bush’s first term, I analyze how CSI mobilizes a particular aesthetic of […]
The Power of Horror: Abject Art and Terrorism in Don DeLillo’s Falling Man
The Power of Horror: Abject Art and Terrorism in Don DeLillo’s Falling Man Kelsie Donnelly Abstract This paper argues that Don DeLillo’s 2007 novel, Falling Man, engages with abject art to disrupt the pre-existing systems of signification and dualistic rhetoric that characterized state and media responses to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. […]
Letters on the Aesthetic Deformation of Man
Letters on the Aesthetic Deformation of Man Katya Mandoki Abstract Friedrich Schiller wrote Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man hoping to elevate human potential through the arts for the development of free citizens of the Republic, and also in reaction to the decline of the French Revolution into a Reign of Terror. Nowadays, […]
Reflections on the Aesthetics of Violence
Reflections on the Aesthetics of Violence Arnold Berleant Abstract Violence has long been a factor in human life and has been widely depicted in the arts. This essay explores how the artistic and appreciative responses to violence have been practiced, understood, and valued. It emphasizes the difference between the aesthetics of distant, disinterested appreciation […]