Publisher's Synopsis
Seeking to understand the phenomenon of violent imagery in popular culture, James B. Twitchell offers a lively look at some modern 'fables of agression' and their historical precursors. He examines the entertainment available to a mass audience in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including bull-baiting and other blood sports, Punch-and-Judy shows, and the illustrations of William Hogarth. In our own century, he finds the equivalents of these diversions in comics and television programmes, and in the latest video games. Examining a number of key examples in depth, he suggests some intriguing reasons for their continuing appeal.
