{"product_id":"painful-forms-anna-ioanes-9781469688930","title":"Painful Forms: Aesthetic Violence in American Literature and Art, 1945-2001","description":"In the wake of World War II, Americans struggled to grasp the shifting scale of violence brought on by the nuclear era. To grapple with the overwhelming suffering of the sociopolitical moment, new ways of thinking about violence--as structural, systemic, and senseless--emerged. Artists and writers, however, challenged the cultural impulse to make sense of these new horrors, mobilizing what Anna Ioanes calls \"aesthetic violence.\" Searching for the strategies artists employed to resist the normalization of new forms of crushing violence, Ioanes examines the works of major cultural figures, including Kara Walker, James Baldwin, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, and Toni Morrison, and lesser-known artists such as playwright Maryat Lee and riot grrrl figure Kathleen Hanna.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGrounded in close reading, archival research, and theories of affect, aesthetics, and identity, \u003ci\u003ePainful Forms\u003c\/i\u003e shows that artists employed forms that short-circuited familiar interpretive strategies for making sense of suffering, and as a result, defamiliarized common sense notions that sought to naturalize state-sanctioned violence. Rather than pulling heartstrings, stoking outrage, or straightforwardly critiquing injustice, Ioanes argues that aesthetic violence forecloses catharsis, maintains ambiguities, and refuses to fully make sense, allowing audiences to experience new ways of thinking, feeling, and knowing about suffering.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Anna Ioanes\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 146968893X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781469688930\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of North Carolina Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/21\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.25h x 6.12w x 1.00d","brand":"Anna Ioanes","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":46795630379263,"sku":"9781469688930","price":99.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_7bdb2d15-7116-4dee-ad68-5b6024a78742.jpg?v=1744948190","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/painful-forms-anna-ioanes-9781469688930","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}