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Published in:
2013 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
‘In the Land of the Pig, the Butcher Is King’: Torture, Spaces, and Power
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Torture porn does not simply entail ‘luxuriating in the sight of another human being’s suffering’ (Fern, 2008), as numerous detractors have claimed. The characters’ struggles advance torture porn’s narratives. Such battling involves physical violence (torture), but it also shifts the characters’ positions relative to one another. Physical brutality reifies the characters’ symbolic grappling for control. The characters’ initial relationships are unmoored by violence, resulting in role-slippages. Contra to Scarry’s (1985: 36) interpretation of torture then, torture porn’s violence does not fix power. Rather, torture porn films depict the contestation of power.