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Mass violence and the continuum of destruction: a study of C. P. Taylor’s Good
Version 2 2023-06-07, 08:45
Version 1 2023-06-07, 06:57
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 08:45 authored by James Hardie-BickJames Hardie-BickThere are important studies that have directly focused on how, in times of conflict, it is possible for previously law abiding people to commit the most atrocious acts of cruelty and violence. The work of Erich Fromm (Escape from Freedom), Hannah Arendt (Eichmann in Jerusalem), Zygmunt Bauman (Modernity and the Holocaust) and Ernest Becker (Escape from Evil) have all contemplated the driving force of aggression and mass violence to further our understanding of how people are capable of engaging in extreme forms of cruelty and violence. This paper specifically addresses these issues by focusing on C. P. Taylor’s play Good. This provocative play examines how a seemingly ‘good’ and intelligent university professor can gradually become caught up in the workings of the Third Reich. Taylor highlights the importance of appreciating how people can be steadily incorporated into an ideologically destructive system. I argue that the theatre is a powerful medium to explore these complex issues. The audience of Good find themselves confronted with the following question - ‘What would you have done?’
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
International Journal for the Semiotics of LawISSN
0952-8059Publisher
Springer VerlagExternal DOI
Issue
2Volume
33Page range
477-495Department affiliated with
- Sociology and Criminology Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2020-05-07First Open Access (FOA) Date
2020-05-12First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2020-05-07Usage metrics
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