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Positivism
A term commonly used in anthropology to describe literary, artistic, or scholarly work that sensationalizes violence, thereby exploiting the people it depicts for the sake of its audience’s enjoyment. In his Introduction, Philippe Bourgois struggles with how to write about the violence that he witnesses without either minimizing its severity or falling into this “pornographic” mode of narration that would prevent the reader from empathizing with the people he researches.
Pornography of Violence Quotes in In Search of Respect
The In Search of Respect quotes below are all either spoken by Pornography of Violence or refer to Pornography of Violence. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Introduction
Quotes
Furthermore, as the anthropologist Laura Nader stated succinctly in the early 1970 s, “Don’t study the poor and powerless because everything you say about them will be used against them.” I do not know if it is possible for me to present the story of my three and a half years of residence in El Barrio without falling prey to a pornography of violence, or a racist voyeurism — ultimately the problem and the responsibility is also in the eyes of the beholder.
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Pornography of Violence Term Timeline in In Search of Respect
The timeline below shows where the term Pornography of Violence appears in In Search of Respect. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Introduction
...when they do study them—both trends Bourgois seeks to avoid. He refuses to create “ a pornography of violence that reinforces popular stereotypes,” but also does not want to “sanitize the vulnerable” like many...
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...plague it, but there is always a chance that his narrative will turn into “ a pornography of violence. ”
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