Popularizing Violence
A03 Staging of crime: Gangsta-Rap in Interactive Identity Practices of Young People
A04 Low Pop: The Sentimental Ballad
B04 Popular Middle Ages: Narratives and Inventories in Fantasy Literature
B05 Popular History in Digital Games Between Mainstreaming and Diversification
C05 African Musics and Politics: Negotiating Violence in South African Popular Music
15.–16. 09. 2022
15.09. | 12:15 Uhr – 19:00 Uhr
16.09. | 09:30 Uhr – 13:30 Uhr
Location: University of Siegen
Herrengarten AH A 217/18
All members of the CRC 1472 are most welcome to join the workshop in situ in Siegen or follow the presentations via zoom (joining the collective discussions will be only possible for offline participants though). To ensure a productive debate, the workshop is only open to CRC members.
For our planning we ask for registration until 31. August 2022 with Anne Deckbar (Anne.Deckbar@uni-siegen.de).
Being a highly ambivalent phenomenon, violence makes for an especially interesting case to scrutinize transformations of the popular. Despite the widespread normative condemnation of violence in both non-academic and academic discourses, we will approach violence as a phenomenon that can be also fascinating, thrilling, and purposively sought out, not least in various forms of the popular. We will discuss popularizations of violence considering the phenomenon’s ambiguity. Putting aside normative conceptualizations of violence as a generally undesireable phenomenon, we ask how popularizations of violence are intertwined with negotiations of its legitimacy.
The interdisciplinary workshop will feature presentations by three guest speakers: Shane Denson (Stanford), Heike Becker (Cape Town), and Reinhard Kopanski (Siegen) as well as contributions from six CRC sub-projects (A01, A03, A04, B04, B05, C05). The presentations will deal with most different empirical material, such as computer games, student protest, criminalized music or fantasy literature. During collective discussion, we will locate the popularization and (un-)popularity of violence between the poles of the playfulness of artistic production and the “serious game of politics.”
Programm
12:15 – 13:00
Arrival and Snacks
13:15 – 13:30
Welcome
13:30 – 14:30
Shane Denson (Stanford)
Deep Violence: DeepFakes and the (Un)Gendering of the Flesh
14:30 – 15:15
A01
Negotiating Violence: Superhero Comics and Their Paratexts
15:15 – 16:00
B04
Cruel Middle Ages? On the Popularization of Violence in Fantasy
16:00 – 16:30
Coffee break
16:30 – 17:15
C05
Violence in Song as a Populist Tool: Van Blerk’s “De la Rey” and Malema’s “Kill the Boer”
17:15 – 18:00
Reinhard Kopanski (Siegen)
Popularization? Glorification? Provocation? – A Model of Analysis for Engaging with Violence in Popular Music Using the Example of Rammstein’s Video Clip “Deutschland”.
18:00 – 18:30
Interim discussion and conclusion
Ca. 19:00
Joint Dinner
9:30 – 10:30
Heike Becker (Cape Town)
Popular Culture and Violence in South African Student-led Movements, 2015–2017: Challenging questions
10:30 – 11:15
A03
The Ir-/Relevance of Violence in Gangsta Rap
11:15 – 11:30
Coffee break
11:30 – 12:15
A04
Love in times of war: About Spandau Ballet’s popular treatment of the Northern Ireland conflict in a love song
12:15 – 13:00
B05
Abstract Asthetics of War: Visualizing violence in popular digital games
13:00 – 13:30
Closing discussion
Ca. 13:30
Conclusion with joint lunch