Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Prelims
1. Introduction
Part I - An Introduction to Elias' Views on Violence
2. War, Hope, and Fear - Writings on Violence at the End of a Long Life3. Figurational Analysis of Michael Haneke's Time of the Wolf
Part II - Strengths and limits
4. Violence and Civilit The Ambivalences of the State5. Elias' Civilizing Process and the Janus-faced of Modernity6. Civilisation and Violence at the Periphery of Capitalism: Notes for Rethinking the Brazilian Civilizing Process7. Self-Inflicted Wound: On the Paradoxical Dimensions of American Violence
Part III - Post Conflict Processes and Democracy
8. Norbert Elias and State-building after Violent Conflict9. Figurational Approach and Commemorating Violence in Central and Eastern Europe10. Parliamentary Form of Government, Habitus, and violence: the case of Iran (1906-1925)
Synopsis
This book presents key conceptualizations of violence as developed by Norbert Elias. The authors explain and exemplify these concepts by analyzing Elias's late texts, comparing his views to those of Sigmund Freud, and by analyzing the work of filmmaker Michael Haneke. The authors then discuss the strengths and shortcomings of Elias's thoughts on violence by examining various social processes such as colonization, imperialism, and the Brazilian civilizing process-in addition to the ambivalence of state violence. The final chapters suggest how these concepts can be used to explain difficulties in implementing democracy, grappling with memories of violence, and state building after democracy.