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5 books match the query 'Outrage'
Art & Outrage
Provocation, Controversy and the Visual ArtsJohn A. Walker
Pluto Press, 1998
When art hits the headlines, it is usually because it has caused offence or is perceived by the media to have shock-value. Over the last fifty years many artists have been censored, vilified, accused of blasphemy and obscenity, threatened with violence, prosecuted and even imprisoned. Their work has been trashed by the media and physically attacked by the public.
In Art & Outrage, John A. Walker covers the period from the late 1940s to the 1990s to provide the first detailed survey of the most prominent cases of art that has scandalised. The work of some of Britain’s leading, and less well known, painters and sculptors of the postwar period is considered, such as Richard Hamilton, Bryan Organ, Rachel Whiteread, Reg Butler, Damien Hirst, Jamie Wagg, Barry Flanagan and Antony Gormley. Included are works made famous by the media, such as Carl Andre’s Tate Gallery installation of 120 bricks, Rick Gibson’s foetus earrings, Anthony-Noel Kelly’s cast body-parts sculptures and Marcus Harvey’s portrait of Myra Hindley. Walker describes how each incident emerged, considers the arguments for and against, and examines how each was concluded. While broadly sympathetic to radical contemporary art, Walker has some residual sympathy for the layperson’s bafflement and antagonism. This is a scholarly yet accessible study of the interface between art, society and mass media which offers an alternative history of postwar British art and attitudes.
From Outrage to Action
The Politics of Grass-Roots DissentLaura R. Woliver
University of Illinois Press, 1993
Through in-depth interviews with activists, Laura Woliver examines these community actions, studying the groups involved and linking her conclusions to larger questions of political power and the impact of social movements. Her findings will make fascinating reading for those interested in the rise and fall of grass-roots interest groups, the nature of dissent, and the reasons why people volunteer countless hours, sometimes in the face of community opposition and isolation, to dedicate themselves to a cause. The ad hoc interest groups studied are the Committee to Recall Judge Archie Simonson (Madison), the Coalition for Justice for Ernest Lacy (Milwaukee), Concerned Citizens for Children (Grant County, Wisconsin), and Citizens Taking Action (Madison). Woliver relates the community responses in these cases to those in the Jeffrey Dahmer mass murder case and the beating by Los Angeles police of Rodney King.
Outrage
The Rise of Religious Offence in Contemporary South AsiaEdited by Paul Rollier, Kathinka Frøystad, and Arild Engelsen Ruud
University College London, 2019
An interdisciplinary study of this trend, Outrage brings together researchers in anthropology, religious studies, and South Asian studies with rich experience in the varied ways religion and politics intersect in this region. Each chapter focuses on a recent case of alleged blasphemy or desecration in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, unpacking the religious sensitivities and political concerns. Collectively, the chapters explore common denominators across national and religious differences, such as the introduction of social media and smartphones, the possible political gains of initiating blasphemy accusations, and the growing self-assertion of marginal communities.
Walter Sisulu
A Sense of OutrageTom Lodge with Roger Southall
Ohio University Press, 0
Although hailed, alongside Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo, as one of the African National Congress’s holy trinity, Walter Sisulu has remained a relatively neglected figure in the historiography of the struggle for liberation in South Africa. Modest and unassuming, Sisulu was always content to stay in the background in a way that has long belied his importance. This nuanced and highly original biography, drafted by political historian Tom Lodge before his untimely death, provides a powerful corrective. Lodge describes Sisulu as an exceptional organizer, the most influential planner of the ANC’s mass campaigning during the 1950s, a principled but undoctrinaire communist, and like Mandela, an advocate of the necessity of armed struggle. He also served as the careful navigator of the ambiguous relationship between the ANC and Umkhonto we Sizwe, and Lodge details how Sisulu, with his exceptional grasp of the subtleties of fact and law, confounded the prosecution as he sat in the dock in the Rivonia trial. Sentenced to life imprisonment with his fellow defendants, Sisulu became a calming influence amid the divisive ideological debates that took place on Robben Island, as well as a constant source of strength and support to Mandela. After his 1989 release from jail—ahead of Mandela—he again demonstrated his prowess as the chief organizer of the ANC as it reestablished itself ahead of the 1994 elections. Sociologist Roger Southall stepped in to complete Lodge’s detailed analysis of Sisulu’s commitment and contribution to South African freedom, an encomium that Walter Sisulu richly deserves.
What Saves Us
Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of TrumpEdited by Martín Espada
Northwestern University Press, 2019
This is an anthology of poems in the Age of Trump—and much more than Trump. These are poems that either embody or express a sense of empathy or outrage, both prior to and following his election, since it is empathy the president lacks and outrage he provokes.
There is an extraordinary diversity of voices here. The ninety-three poets featured include Elizabeth Alexander, Julia Alvarez, Richard Blanco, Carolyn Forché, Aracelis Girmay, Donald Hall, Juan Felipe Herrera, Yusef Komunyakaa, Naomi Shihab Nye, Marge Piercy, Robert Pinsky, Danez Smith, Patricia Smith, Brian Turner, Ocean Vuong, Bruce Weigl, and Eleanor Wilner. They speak of persecuted and scapegoated immigrants. They bear witness to violence: police brutality against African Americans, mass shootings in a school or synagogue, the rage inflicted on women everywhere. They testify to poverty: the waitress surviving on leftovers at the restaurant, the battles of a teacher in a shelter for homeless mothers, the emergency-room doctor listening to the heartbeats of his patients. There are voices of labor, in the factory and the fields. There are prophetic voices, imploring us to imagine the world we will leave behind in ruins lest we speak and act.
However, this is not merely a collection of grievances. The poets build bridges. One poet steps up to translate in Arabic at the airport; another walks through the city and sees her immigrant past in the immigrant present; another declaims a musical manifesto after the hurricane that devastated his island; another evokes a demonstration in the street, shouting in an ecstasy of defiance. The poets take back the language, resisting the demagogic corruption of words themselves. They assert our common humanity in the face of dehumanization.