Arte, estética e violência cultural: uma análise do cinema hollywoodiano pós-11 de setembro

Abstract

This article analyzes how Hollywood cinema produced in the post-9/11 context operates as an instrument for the production of cultural violence, as conceptualized by Peace Studies. Drawing on the aesthetic turn in International Relations, it is argued that aesthetic practices naturalize the use of force, dehumanize the Other, and frame the War on Terror as inevitable and necessary. A content analysis is employed to interpret three films from the period — Iron Man (2008), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), and American Sniper (2014). Examining how symbols and aesthetic practices reveal dynamics of violence legitimation through five categories of analysis: representation of the enemy, aesthetics of violence, construction of the hero, sense of threat and moral legitimation of war. It is concluded that the identified patterns confirm the functioning of Galtung's triangle of violence, evidencing cinema as a device of symbolic power that participates in the maintenance and dissemination of narratives that legitimize violence and shape perceptions of identity. Such understanding is necessary for the critical advancement of International Relations regarding the symbolic dimensions of war.