Global corpse politics : the obscenity taboo

Author(s)

    • Auchter, Jessica

Bibliographic Information

Global corpse politics : the obscenity taboo

Jessica Auchter

（Cambridge studies in international relations, 157）

Cambridge University Press, 2021

  • : hardback

Available at  / 3 libraries

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Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Summary: "Visualizing Corpse Politics Jessica Auchter Several years ago, when the images of Syrian torture victims' dead bodies were released by a photographer who had worked for the Syrian security forces and defected, I printed them out on a communal office printer, since my individual office printer did not print in color. I wanted to have them as a reference to go back to, and given the uncertainty of internet links, I didn't want to rely on being able to access them again online. In fact, having followed the publication of dead body images as an area of academic study for quite some time, I was also concerned that over the following days, the pictures would be removed from public access due to their graphic nature, the same way beheading images had been removed from online platforms and rescinded by media publications, the 9/11 falling body images had steadily been removed over time as they became considered too obscene to be seen (Auchter 2014), and ..."

Contents of Works

  • Visualization corpse politics
  • Horrifically graphic : the obscene corpse
  • The visual politics of ISIS beheadings
  • Dead terrorists and dead dictators
  • Proof of death : evidence and atrocity
  • Displaying the dead body : some conclusions

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Taboos have long been considered key examples of norms in global politics, with important strategic effects. Auchter focuses on how obscenity functions as a regulatory norm by focusing on dead body images. Obscenity matters precisely because it is applied inconsistently across multiple cases. Examining empirical cases including ISIS beheadings, the death of Muammar Qaddafi, Syrian torture victims, and the fake death images of Osama bin Laden, this book offers a rich theoretical explanation of the process by which the taboo surrounding dead body images is transgressed and upheld, through mechanisms including trigger warnings and media framings. This corpse politics sheds light on political communities and the structures in place that preserve them, including the taboos that regulate purported obscene images. Auchter questions the notion that the key debate at play in visual politics related to the dead body image is whether to display or not to display, and instead narrates various degrees of visibility, invisibility, and hyper-visibility.

Table of Contents

  • 1. Visualizing corpse politics
  • 2. Horrifically graphic: the obscene corpse
  • 3. The visual politics of ISIS beheadings
  • 4. Dead terrorists and dead dictators
  • 5. Proof of death: evidence and atrocity
  • 6. Displaying the dead body: Some conclusions.

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