The Fictional Dimension of the School Shooting Discourse: Approaching the Inexplicable

Silke Braselmann

Published by De Gruyter 2019

The Fictional Dimension of the School Shooting Discourse

Approaching the Inexplicable

Silke Braselmann

Volume 65 in the series Buchreihe der Anglia / Anglia Book Series

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110649017

Overview
Contents

About this book

Ever since the 1990s, school shootings have shocked the public in their brutality, their suddenness, and their inexplicability. While film and literature have played a role in the heated debates about so-called copycat crimes, the growing body of fictionalizations of school shootings has been neglected thus far. However, in a discourse in which the boundaries between fiction and reality are increasingly blurred, this book shows how fiction shapes and structures, challenges and disrupts cultural processes of meaning-making. Hence, for a better understanding of the school shooting phenomenon, the relevance of fiction on all levels of discourse construction requires thorough analysis. This book therefore develops a new approach to the role of fiction for contemporary forms of excessive violence. By combining narrative theory with insights from sociology and other disciplines, it provides the means for apprehending and describing the relevance of fiction for contemporary discourses. Furthermore, it provides exemplary analyses of more specific functions of literary and filmic fictionalizations of school shootings between 2000 and 2016.

An interdisciplinary approach to a contemporary phenomenon, with a strong focus on the functions of literature and film.
Provides a model for describing the interwovenness of fiction and reality in the construction of cultural discourses.

Author / Editor information

Silke Braselmann, Justus-Liebig-University, Gießen, Germany.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
1. Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I: Narrative, Fiction and Fact in the School Shooting Discourse
2. We Need to Talk About Amok: Tracing the Narratives of School Shootings Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
3. Blurred Boundaries: The Role of Fiction in the School Shooting Discourse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	90
Part II: Discursive Functions of School Shooting Literature and Film
4. Multimodal Representations of the School Shooting Narrative in Give a Boy a Gun (2000), Shooter (2004) and Big Mouth & Ugly Girl (2002) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
5. Experiencing the ‘Rashomon-Effect’: Functions of Multiperspectivity in Violent Ends (2015), This is Where It Ends (2016) and Elephant (2003) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	210
6. Unsettling Narratives: The Inexplicability of School Shootings in We Need to Talk About Kevin (2003) and its Film Adaptation (2011) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
7. Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	315
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	332
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	351

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Researchers, students.
Pages
- Front matter: 14
- Main content: 354
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 10
Keywords: Fiction; Narrative Theory; Violence; School Shootings

eBook

Published: June 17, 2019
ISBN: 9783110649017

Hardcover

Published: June 17, 2019
ISBN: 9783110647358

Paperback

Published: September 20, 2021
ISBN: 9783110766059