Breaking the Mirror of the Spectacle
Mass Murder/Suicide as the Ecstasy of Simulated Experience
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2370686 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Oliver Simpson (0000-0003-1356-4027, Lancaster University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue | 7-8 |
| Pages | 1109-1120 |
| Publication date | 2020-11-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Critical Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0896-9205 • E-ISSN: 1569-1632 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0896920519878481 |
| OpenAlex | W2990609889 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 10 |
This article develops a sociological understanding of the lone mass shooter and the ways in which his affectual constellation is produced within and mirrors the social space. It begins by outlining the contemporary political context of terrorism. The article then explores the affectual constellation of an isolated mass murderer, by asking the question 'what is a loser?'. Following this, it links the emergence of the radical loser to modernity through an exploration of the genealogy of nihilism. Then, taking the mass murderer Elliot Rodger as a paradigmatic case, it explores the ways in which his affectual constellation can be understood as produced within the capitalist social formation. Finally, it argues that mass murder can be understood as the ecstasy of simulated experience, its violent countertransference, constituting a zone of indistinction between the spectacle and the real, killing and being killed
Aesthetics · Anomie · Art · Criminology · Ecstasy · Modernity · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Spectacle · Terrorism · Anthropology · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · History · Law · Psychology · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
| Highly cited | No |
|---|