VIOLENCE IN MEDIA AND SOCIETY: Literature, Film and TV

Living surrounded by violence, we have probably become immune to its impact and substituted the civilized culture with what may be called a “culture of violence” – terrorism, conflicts, domestic, communal and gender violence, violence in its psychological and physical forms, socio-economic injustice, systemic, state and institutionalized violence, rape, arson, killings. You just name it and you see it in its myriad manifestations, diverse human contexts and various dehumanizing forms.

Violence signifies ‘force’ as well as ‘violation’. Over the past several decades, due to the rapid changes in social, economic, political and cultural environment, violence has become an ugly reality – a lived reality – that can only be experienced; words can merely report the happening but not its intensity which is felt only by the victim(s).

Violence has been at the heart of intellectual debates all along human history. Literature has, from time to time, focused on societal obsession with violence. Cinema and TV too are now taking up the issue. Man seems to be tired of conflicts, wars, terrorism and such other acts of brutality.

This book seeks to explore the prevalence and representation of violence in the contemporary society. The articles contained in this anthology look at violence from various angles and mainly from the perspective of literature but the few papers on films, television, and those approaching violence from theoretical angle contribute to find patterns of violence in diverse ways. There are ‘kinds’ of violence and the literature surveyed here is only a minuscule part of the forms of violence that have infested the humankind.

Usha Bande, former Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, has also been associated with the Institute for Integrated Himalayan Studies, HP University, Shimla. She has worked extensively in the field of Women’s Studies, has authored several books and is also a guest faculty at various institutions of repute like Vishwa Bharati University, Shanti Niketan.

Dr Bande worked for her doctorate on the novels of Anita Desai, interpreting Desai’s characters from the angle of Third Force psychology. This innovative approach has been widely acclaimed by scholars in the field.

Anshu Kaushal is a lecturer working in RKMV, Shimla. Presently she is engaged in research in the field of children’s literature.