Girard, Mediated Texts, and the Modern Death Penalty

摘要

This article examines the history of the modern execution, with an aim to answering how and why it disappeared as a public event. Assuming that modern executions can be considered a kind of ritual, the first part of the article summarizes two important paradigms for viewing ritual communication. The first paradigm focuses on the role of rituals as methods of controlling information and controlling populations, and the second focuses on the way that rituals communicate public meaning. In contrast to these two approaches, I suggest a third way of thinking about the execution ritual, building on René Girard's theory of public sacrifice. Using the work of Girard, I suggest, can point historically minded scholars of modern media ritual into a potentially fruitful path of investigation, and to a deeper examination of the media's treatment of violence in the modern world.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2012.730318