Theatres of Human Sacrifice From Ancient Ritual to Screen Violence book cover image<http://www.sunypress.edu/covers/61019_cov.jpg> Mark Pizzato - Author SUNY series in Psychoanalysis and Culture <http://www.sunypress.edu/results.asp?searchtype=SeriesDirect&groupnow=1&keywordsearch=SUNY+series+in+Psychoanalysis+and+Culture&pg=1&orderby=> $81.50 Hardcover - 265 pages Release Date: November 2004 ISBN: 0-7914-6259-5 $27.95 Paperback - 265 pages Release Date: November 2004 ISBN: 0-7914-6260-9 line to separate header from information<http://www.sunypress.edu/images/dt_line.gif> Summary <http://www.sunypress.edu/pdf/61019.pdf> Provides insight into the ritual lures and effects of mass media spectatorship, especially regarding the pleasures, risks, and purposes of violent display. Contemporary debates about mass media violence tend to ignore the long history of staged violence in the theatres and rituals of many cultures. In Theatres of Human Sacrifice, Mark Pizzato relates the appeal and possible effects of screen violence today--in sports, movies, and television news--to specific sacrificial rites and performance conventions in ancient Greek, Aztec, and Roman culture. Using the psychoanalytic theories of Lacan, Kristeva, and Zizek, as well as the theatrical theories of Artaud and Brecht, the book offers insights into the ritual lures and effects of current mass media spectatorship, especially regarding the pleasures, purposes, and risks of violent display. Updating Aristotle's notion of catharsis, Pizzato identifies a sacrificial imperative within the human mind, structured by various patriarchal cultures and manifested in distinctive rites and dramas, with both positive and negative potential effects on their audiences. "In addressing the problematic effects of dramatic violence, the author treats the subject not only historically as violence has unfolded in external performances--in ritual sacrifice, gladiatorial sports, as well as theatre--but also as it unfolds within the mind." - Joseph Natoli, author of Memory's Orbit: Film and Culture 1999-2000 "This is a pathbreaking and definitive investigation of the cultural work that spectacles of violent sacrifice have performed in a multitude of historical contexts. Through this investigation, Mark Pizzato provides a new framework for understanding the spectacle of violent sacrifice as the location where cultural and political debate plays itself out." - Todd McGowan, author of The End of Dissatisfaction? Jacques Lacan and the Emerging Society of Enjoyment Mark Pizzato is Associate Professor of Theatre at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the author of Edges of Loss: From Modern Drama to Postmodern Theory. line to separate header from information<http://www.sunypress.edu/images/dt_line.gif> Table Of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS PROLOGOS Tragedy in Melodrama Theatre's Material Ghosts and Gods Ethical Edges A Sacrificial Imperative PART ONE: CATHARSIS BETWEEN SACRIFICIAL CULTURES 1. Blood Sacrifice in Ancient Greece and Aztec America Theatre within Ritual Transcendental Savagery Altar-Egos and Body Parts From Solar to Proscenium Mirrors The Bottom of the Frame Animistic Psychology, Puppetry, and Dancing Hearts Cathartic Encounters with the Real 2. Roman, Aztec, and NFL "Gladiators" Sacrificial Shades The Metaphysics of Script and Score Im-mortal Dances, Costumes, and Props Star Powers Audience Participation and Alienation Melodramatic or Tragic Catharsis PART TWO: SCREENING REAL MONSTERS 3. Choral Edges in Frankenstein and Natural Born Killers A Monstrous Gaze Slices of Space and Time Edges of Communion in Frankenstein Violence in the House Cruel Affect and A-Effect as Cathartic Cures Choral Born Killers Male and Female Monsters 4. Brechtian and Aztec Violence in Zoot Suit Patriarchal Sacrifices Brechtian Ixiptla Onscreen Audience Effects of the Perverse Superego 5. Martyrs and Scapegoats in the Films of Scorsese and Coppola Body and Blood Offerings Between Animal and Divine Lucifer Within Sacrifices That Cannot Be Refused The Sympathetic Inheritance of Evil Postmodern Flower War EXODOS NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu