Terror and the arts : artistic, literary, and political interpretations of violence from Dostoyevksy to Abu Ghraib / edited by Matti Hyvärinen and Lisa Muszynski.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction. The Arts Investigating Terror / Matti Hyvarinen and Lisa Muszynski -- Pt. 1. Visualizing Terror -- 1. The Implicated Spectator: From Manet to Botero / Frank Moller -- 2. Art in the Age of Terror: The Israeli Case / Dana Arieli-Horowitz -- 3. The Aura of Terror? / Kia Lindroos -- Pt. 2. Fictionalizing Terror -- 4. Dostoyevsky on Terror and the Question of the West / Margaret Heller -- 5. To This Side of Good and Evil: Primo Levi as a Truth-teller / Tuija Parvikko -- 6. Narrating the Trauma: Georges Perec's W ou le souvenir d'enfance / Kuisma Korhonen -- 7. Too Much Terror? J. M. Coetzee's Elizabeth Costello and the Circulation of Trauma / Matti Hyvarinen -- Pt. 3. Governmental Terror -- 8. Dictators and Dictatorships: Art and Politics in Romania and Chile (1974-89) / Caterina Preda -- 9. Inciting Mental Terror as Effective Governmental Control: Chinese Propaganda Posters during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) / Minna Valjakka -- 10. The Sweet Hereafter of Machiavelli and Weber: Discussing Community and Responsibility as Political-ethical Criteria / Javier Franze -- Pt. 4. The Terror of Theory -- 11. The Violence of Lying / Olivia Guaraldo -- 12. Terrorized by Sound? Foucault on Terror, Resistance, and Sonorous Art / Lauri Siisiainen.

"Terror, dread, and violence against civilian populations constitute a true predicament of our contemporary political world. Authoritarian governments develop methods to capitalize on the arts in support of terror, where violence and trauma provoke more of the same in a vicious circle. This book argues that the arts - from film and literature to painting and comics - offers qualitatively different readings of terror and trauma, readings that endeavor to resist the exploitation and perpetuation of violence. The contributors suggest that political inquiry into the phenomenon of terror may benefit profoundly by developing non-reductive ways of reading the arts."--BOOK JACKET.