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    Symptom of the post-political – Terrorism in Contemporary German, British and Hollywood Cinema. 
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    Symptom of the post-political – Terrorism in Contemporary German, British and Hollywood Cinema.

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    Thom_Maren_PhD_280415.pdf (1.791Mb)
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    Queen Mary University of London
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    Abstract
    This thesis investigates the ways representations of terrorism in Hollywood, German and British cinema embody what Slavoj Žižek describes as the postpolitical, that is the current state of denial of alternatives within global politics and a directionlessness within cultural theory, which set in after the apparent defeat of the possibility of a radical alternative to capitalism. Moreover, this thesis proposes that films about terrorism are not only cultural expressions of the post-political, but also show the post-political condition to be problematic, displaying as they do symptoms such as the devaluation of human subjectivity and its concomitant failure to achieve progressive political change. Žižek’s philosophical approach as a method of interpreting the postpolitical is applied to the films Munich (2005), Zero Dark Thirty (2012) The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008) Die Kommenden Tage/The Coming Days, (2010) Four Lions (2010) and Hunger (2008). As well as Žižek’s work, the writings of other critics and commentators and such as Frank Furedi, Thomas Elsaesser, Kenan Malik and others are drawn on. The aesthetic and formal properties of these films are read against Žižek’s texts on ideology critique, which are primarily directed at the post-political. The films shown exhibit expressions of the post-political in notions of empathy and sustainability, campness, and postmodern forms of narrative, which Žižek calls filling in gaps, and Žižek’s concept of ‘the act’. By mapping the post-political in Hollywood, British and German cinema this research assays the manner in which screen terrorism is symptomatic of the post-political condition.
    Authors
    Thom, Maren
    URI
    http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/8916
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    • Theses [3600]
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    The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author
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