Violence in Contemporary American Literature

Lecture in Contemporary English Literatures

University of Silesia

Marcin Sarnek

David Hammons, Injustice Case, 1970

Political violence – American Experience

• Abraham Lincoln• James Garfield• John F. Kennedy• William McKinley• Joseph Smith Jr.• Robert F. Kennedy• list of assassinated American politicians

• Martin Luther King Jr.• Malcolm X• Edgar Meyers

Break

• History as paranoia

Map• If we are to think seriously about the world we live in and act in it effectively,

we need a simplified map of the reality, a theory, concept, model, or paradigm. Without such intellectual constructs we would be left with, as William James put it, "a colorful and noisy confusion."

• To be considered a paradigm a theory has to be better than its rivals, but it does not have to explain all facts which it may be confronted with. As a matter of fact, it never does so.

• As John Lewis Gaddis put it, "to find our ways in a territory that is foreign to us, we need a map. Cartography, just like study, is a necessary simplification, which allows us to gather knowledge of where we are and where we are possibly going."

Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and Remaking of the World Order

Map• A conventionalized simplification?

Map - Mercator Projection– Direction / angle: appropriate– Shape: appropriate– Size / distance: DISTORTED

Map - Mercator Projection– Alaska is presented as being similar in size to Brazil,

when Brazil's area is actually more than 5 times that of Alaska

– Greenland is presented as being as large as Africa, when Africa's area is approx. 14 times larger

Map - Gnomonic Projection• Great Circles (Meridians and the Equator) presented as straight lines• The shortest route between two locations in reality corresponds to

that on the map.• Sizes / distances: appropriate• Directions / Angles: DISTORTED

Map

• Every model or map is a certain abstraction; for certain purposes it will be more useful than for others. A road map shows how to get from point A to point B, but it will not be much help if we pilot a plane. [...] Yet not having any map we for sure will get lost. […] The more detailed the map is the more exactly it reflects the reality. Still, a map with too many details should prove useless for many purposes.[...]In brief, we need a map that both renders the reality and simplifies it in a way that serves our purposes best.

Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations

Map recquires

• Convention

• Edition

• Coherence

Is history just like that, too?

History of Poland 966-1025

• 966 – Baptism of Poland

• 1000 – Congress of Gniezno

• 1025 – Coronation of Bolesław Chrobry

?

?

Pomerania conquest, Eastern conquests, Battle of Cedynia, Congress of Kwedlinburg, wars with Otto II, alliance with Sweded, wars with Denmark, War with the Czechs, Dagome Iudex, Lesser Poland conquest, St. Wojciech missions . . .

Wars with the Czechs, annexation of Moravy, wars with the Germans, Treaty of Budziszyn, Kiev expedition, annexation of Red Ruthenia, Moravy lost . . .

Dealey Plaza, Dallas, TX, USA 22.Nov.1963, 1225 P.M.

JFK assassination

• the shooting – 4.8 to 10 seconds

• JFK Killed

• Gov. Conelly wounded

• Witness James Tague lightly wounded from debris

• The assumed assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, shot to death by Jack Ruby, 24. Nov. 1963

JFK assassination – official explanations

• 1964 – Warren Commission Report: assassination the work of a ‘lone assassin’ – Lee Harvey Oswald, shooting at JFK three times from Texas Schoolbook Depository Building; the final shot lethal.

• 1979 – US House Select Committee on Assassinations: assassination probably the result of unknown conspiracy; L.H. Oswald key

JFK assassination – key inconsistencies

• Witnessess seing and hearing gun fire from locations different than TSBD

• Zapruder Film

• Magic Bullet Theory

• Lee Harvey Oswald’s story

• Jack Ruby’s story

• Many others…

The archive

• 82 still and movie photographers on Dealey Plaza – altogether over 500 photographs taken

• Efforts made to identify every single person in the Plaza

• Warren Report – 888 pages• Warren Commission Records – 26 volumes• Governmental documents pertaining to JFK

assassination: approx 200.000 pages plus estimated 100.000 pages of classified documents plus an estimated court and Congress record of 1.500.000 pages

The archive - continued

• As of 1979 – approx. 5000 books and articles on JFK assassination

• As for 1991 (release of JFK by Oliver Stone) – approx. 10.000 books and articles

Lee Harvey Oswald. . . • Shitbird, Ozzie Rabbit,

Oswaldskovich, also spelled Oswaldkovitch, Oswaldskowich, and Oswaldovich.

• Harvey Lee Oswald, Harvey Lee, Lee Harvey, Lee Henry Oswald, Harvey Oswald Lee, Harvey Oswald, Leon Oswald, O.H. Lee, H.O. Lee, Leslie Oswald,

• Aleksei Oswald, Alik, • Hidell, A. Hidell, A.J. Hidell, Alek J.

Hidell, Robert Hidell, Alek James Hidell, Dr. A.J. Hideel, Albert Alexander Osborne, and Howard Osborne.

• William Bobo

Lee Harvey Oswald• A scar on Oswald's jaw noted on his Marine Corps physical was not

mentioned in his autopsy report.• Oswald was left-handed according to his mother, right-handed

according to his brother. • Oswald knew and did not know how to drive a car. • Oswald did and did not have homosexual relationships.• Oswald was "disheveled, unkempt and dirty" and "neat in

appearance and dress.”• Oswald briefly had a beard but also had too little facial hair to grow

a beard.• Oswald gave public speeches both supporting and opposing the

Soviet Union.• Oswald read, spoke, and wrote flawless English and Russian; yet

he suffered from dyslexia. • Oswald's eyes were grey, blue, and brown.

Lee Harvey Oswald

• Oswald was 5', 5'3", 5'7", 5'8", 5'9", 5'10", 5'11", 6'1", and 6'2".

Zapruder Film

• Taken by Abraham Zapruder on 8mm camera• Sold to Life Magazine, copies made by the FBI• Life Magazine accidentely damages THREE

frames of the Z-Film when copying – conspiracy theories emerge

• 1975 – The Zapruder film shown to the public for the first time

• 1991 – used as footage in JFK by Oliver Stone – first time available to large audiences

• 1997 – Z-Film digitally restored

‘Break’

• Breaking narratives of authorities:– Discontinuities– Inconsisitencies– Mutually exclusive evidence– DISORDER

‘Break’

• Jacques Lacan

• Frederic Jameson

. . . the breakdown of the relationships of signifiers between themselves, of the "signifying chain" formed by experience/common sense.

‘Break’

How do I know it is the same ship. . . ?

if nobody was watching. . . ?

‘Break’

• Jacques Lacan

• Frederic Jameson

Schizophrenia is defined as the breakdown of the relationships of signifiers between themselves, of the "signifying chain" formed by experience/common sense.

JFK assassination in American fiction

• Winter Kills, Richard Condon• American Tabloid, James Ellroy• The Cold Six Thousand, James

Ellroy• Libra, Don Delillo• Illuminatus! The Trilogy, Robert

Shea and Robert Anton Wilson• Idle Warriors, Kerry Thornley