A brilliant, clear-eyed consideration of the visual representation of violence in our culture–its ubiquity, meanings, and effects. Considered one of the greatest critics of her generation, Susan Sontag followed up her monumental On Photography with an extended study of human violence, reflecting on a question first posed by Virginia Woolf in Three Guineas: How in your opinion are we to prevent war? “For a long time some people believed that if the horror could be made vivid enough, most people would finally take in the outrageousness, the insanity of war.” One of the distinguishing features of modern life is that it supplies countless opportunities for regarding (at a distance, through the medium of photography) horrors taking place throughout the world. But are viewers inured–or incited–to violence by the depiction of cruelty? Is the viewer’s perception of reality eroded by the daily barrage of such images? What does it mean to care about the suffering of others far away? First published more than twenty years after her now-classic book On Photography, which changed how we understand the very condition of being modern, Regarding the Pain of Others challenges our thinking not only about the uses and means of images, but about how war itself is waged (and understood) in our time, the limits of sympathy, and the obligations of conscience.
Regarding the Pain of Others
$9.37
This book offers a critical analysis of the representation of violence and war, encouraging media literacy and critical thinking.
Additional information
| Weight | 1.05 lbs |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 14 × 0.9 × 21 in |
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Regarding the Pain of Others
$11.99
This book provides a critical analysis of photojournalism and media studies, encouraging students to think critically about the consumption of violent imagery.
A brilliant, clear-eyed new consideration of the visual representation of violence in our culture–its ubiquity, meanings, and effects
Watching the evening news offers constant evidence of atrocity–a daily commonplace in our “society of spectacle.” But are viewers inured -or incited–to violence by the daily depiction of cruelty and horror? Is the viewer’s perception of reality eroded by the universal availability of imagery intended to shock?
In her first full-scale investigation of the role of imagery in our culture since her now-classic book On Photography defined the terms of the debate twenty-five years ago, Susan Sontag cuts through circular arguments about how pictures can inspire dissent or foster violence as she takes a fresh look at the representation of atrocity–from Goya’s The Disasters of War to photographs of the American Civil War, lynchings of blacks in the South, and Dachau and Auschwitz to contemporary horrific images of Bosnia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and New York City on September 11, 2001.
As John Berger wrote when On Photography was first published, “All future discussions or analysis of the role of photography in the affluent mass-media societies is now bound to begin with her book.” Sontag’s new book, a startling reappraisal of the intersection of “information”, “news,” “art,” and politics in the contemporary depiction of war and disaster, will be equally essential. It will forever alter our thinking about the uses and meanings of images in our world.
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