The Cruel Radiance

The Cruel Radiance
Author: Susie Linfield
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2012-04-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0226482510

Susie Linfield addresses the issue of whether photographs depicting past scenes of violence & cruelty are voyeuristic, arguing that if we do not look & understand that we are seeing at people, rather than depersonalised acts of inhumanity, our hopes of curbing political violence today are probably limited.

The Cruel Radiance

The Cruel Radiance
Author: Susie Linfield
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2011-05-27
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 0226482529

In The Cruel Radiance, Susie Linfield challenges the idea that photographs of political violence exploit their subjects and pander to the voyeuristic tendencies of their viewers. Instead she argues passionately that looking at such images—and learning to see the people in them—is an ethically and politically necessary act that connects us to our modern history of violence and probes the human capacity for cruelty. Grappling with critics from Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht to Susan Sontag and the postmoderns—and analyzing photographs from such events as the Holocaust, China’s Cultural Revolution, and recent terrorist acts—Linfield explores the complex connection between photojournalism and the rise of human rights ideals. In the book’s concluding section, she examines the indispensable work of Robert Capa, James Nachtwey, and Gilles Peress and asks how photography should respond to the increasingly nihilistic trajectory of modern warfare.A bracing and unsettling book, The Cruel Radiance convincingly demonstrates that if we hope to alleviate political violence, we must first truly understand it—and to do that, we must begin to look.

The Cruel Radiance of the Obvious

The Cruel Radiance of the Obvious
Author: Tom Rankin
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 39
Release: 2011-06-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0807882429

This introductory essay uses William Eggleston as the point of entry to preview the entire photography issue and includes striking photographs from Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Susan Harbage Page—as well as exploring the stunning work of Paul Kwilecki. "Photography in its finest and most decisive moments is about those tired or ignored or unseen parts of our lives, the mundane and worn paths that sit before us so firmly that we cease to notice. It is, we might say, about rebuilding our sight in the face of blindness, of recovering our collective vision." This article appears in the Summer 2011 issue of Southern Cultures: The Photography Issue.

The Cruel Radiance

The Cruel Radiance
Author: Ron Powers
Publisher:
Total Pages: 278
Release: 1994
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN:

In this collection of essays, stories, & literary nonfiction, a noted journalist defends fine storytelling in an age of mass-mediated culture

Framing the Holocaust

Framing the Holocaust
Author: Valerie Hébert
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2023
Genre: Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
ISBN: 029934410X

In December 1941, German police and their local collaborators shot 2,749 Jews at the beach in Sķēde, near Liepāja, Latvia. Twelve photographs were taken at the scene. These now-infamous images show people in extreme distress, sometimes without clothing. Some capture the very moments when women and children confronted their imminent deaths, while others show their dead bodies. They are nearly unbearable to look at--so why should we? Framing the Holocaust offers a multidimensional response to this question. While photographs are central to our memory of modern historical events, they often inhabit an ambivalent intellectual space. What separates the sincere desire to understand from voyeuristic curiosity? Comprehending atrocity photographs requires viewers to place themselves in the very positions of the perpetrators who took the images. When we engage with these photographs, do we risk replicating the original violence? In this tightly organized book, scholars of history, photography, language, gender, photojournalism, and pedagogy examine the images of the Sķēde atrocity along with other difficult images, giving historical, political, and ethical depth to the acts of looking and interpreting. With a foreword by Edward Anders, who narrowly escaped the December 1941 shooting, Framing the Holocaust represents an original approach to an iconic series of Holocaust photographs. This book will contribute to compelling debates in the emerging field of visual history, including the challenges and responsibilities of using photographs to teach about atrocity.

Understanding and Teaching the Holocaust

Understanding and Teaching the Holocaust
Author: Laura Hilton
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2020-07-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 0299328600

Few topics in modern history draw the attention that the Holocaust does. The Shoah has become synonymous with unspeakable atrocity and unbearable suffering. Yet it has also been used to teach tolerance, empathy, resistance, and hope. Understanding and Teaching the Holocaust provides a starting point for teachers in many disciplines to illuminate this crucial event in world history for students. Using a vast array of source materials—from literature and film to survivor testimonies and interviews—the contributors demonstrate how to guide students through these sensitive and painful subjects within their specific historical and social contexts. Each chapter provides pedagogical case studies for teaching content such as antisemitism, resistance and rescue, and the postwar lives of displaced persons. It will transform how students learn about the Holocaust and the circumstances surrounding it.

David Madden

David Madden
Author: Randy Hendricks
Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2006
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9781572334601

For four decades, Knoxville, Tennessee, native David Madden has been writing compelling bestsellers, such as Bijou and The Suicide's Wife, as well as highly respected literary novels, such as Sharpshooter. David Madden: A Writer for All Genres is the first full-length critical work devoted to the whole of Madden's oeuvre, and collectively the essays make the case that the attention paid to Madden's novels has overshadowed his innovative work as a critic, poet, short-story writer, and dramatist. Madden is indeed a writer for all genres--poetry, fiction, drama, and criticism. David Madden: A Writer for all Genres will introduce a new generation of readers to an important and multitalented writer and begin a well-deserved, serious discussion of his place in the American literary tradition.

A Little History of Photography Criticism; or, Why Do Photography Critics Hate Photography?

A Little History of Photography Criticism; or, Why Do Photography Critics Hate Photography?
Author: Susie Linfield
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 43
Release: 2012-12-20
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 022604906X

In A Short History of Photography Criticism; or, Why Do Photography Critics Hate Photography?, Susie Linfield contends that by looking at images of political violence and learning to see the people in them, we engage in an ethically and politically necessary act that connects us to our modern history of violence. For many years, Linfield’s acute analysis of photographs—from events as wide-ranging as the Holocaust, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and recent acts of terrorism—has explored a complex connection between the practices of photojournalism and the rise of human rights ideals. By asking how photography should respond to the darker shadows of modern life, Linfield insists on the continuing moral relevance of photojournalism, while urging us not to avert our eyes from what James Agee once labeled “the cruel radiance of what is.”

Genocide

Genocide
Author: Adam Jones
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 908
Release: 2016-12-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317533860

Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction is the most wide-ranging textbook on genocide yet published. The book is designed as a text for upper-undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a primer for non-specialists and general readers interested in learning about one of humanity’s enduring blights. Fully updated to reflect the latest thinking in this rapidly developing field, this unique book: Provides an introduction to genocide as both a historical phenomenon and an analytical-legal concept, including the concept of genocidal intent, and the dynamism and contingency of genocidal processes. Discusses the role of state-building, imperialism, war, and social revolution in fuelling genocide. Supplies a wide range of full-length case studies of genocides worldwide, each with a supplementary study. Explores perspectives on genocide from the social sciences, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science/international relations, and gender studies. Considers "The Future of Genocide," with attention to historical memory and genocide denial; initiatives for truth, justice, and redress; and strategies of intervention and prevention. Highlights of the new edition include: Nigeria/Biafra as a "contested case" of genocide Extensive new material on the Kurds, Islamic State/ISIS, and the civil wars/genocide in Iraq and Syria. Conflict and atrocities in the world’s newest state, South Sudan. The role, activities, and constraints of the United Nations Office of Genocide Prevention. Many new testimonies from genocide victims, survivors, witnesses—and perpetrators. Dozens of new images, including a special photographic essay. Written in clear and lively prose with over 240 illustrations and maps, Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction remains the indispensable text for new generations of genocide study and scholarship. An accompanying website (www.genocidetext.net) features a broad selection of supplementary materials, teaching aids, and Internet resources.