Much attention has been devoted in recent years to understanding violence. As creative works have sought to document violence and understand its causes, accurate description and representation have often been deemed necessary to the process of healing and the prevention of future violence. At what point, however, do such representations end up perpetrating violence as they aestheticize it? And more importantly perhaps, can these works also suggest solutions to violence? This course will explore answers to these questions through theoretical works, as well as through textual and visual representations of violence. This is a research seminar and requires the active participation of students in presentations and class discussions. Graduate students are also expected to carry out original research towards the final paper. Subject to these conditions, CULT 535 may be taken for graduate credit. For the possibility of taking this course at the undergraduate level see CULT 435.