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The thesis investigates representations of 'red' political violence in Italy of the so- called anni di piombo and later memory of it in selected films, theatrical works, novels and stories. After the Introduction, which includes a discussion of aims, key concepts and methods, there are four main chapters. Chapter One examines representations of the abduction and killing of Aldo Moro in two thematic groups; those which focus respectively on Moro and the brigatisti during the imprisonment and on the Via Fani massacre and the alleged conspiracy behind it. The analysis of these texts serves as a case study, highlighting key themes and issues that will recur in the next chapters. Chapter Two deals with texts that link political violence to relations between the generations - conflicts between father and son, relationships between mother and daughter/son - and reflects on the implications of their emphasis on the family. Chapter Three analyses texts that centre on women militants. It draws attention to two recurrent female types: the woman who strays from her maternal role in joining the armed group and later seeks 'normalization' and the ex-militant who remains committed to her former beliefs, in contrast both to a male character and a female 'good double'. Chapter Four concentrates on the representations of the post-anni di piombo. It deals first with self-narratives of Italian political refugees in Paris and then with fictional or semi-fictionalized representations of 'dramatic encounters' between former activists, and between activists and their children. A short Afterword concludes on the principal findings and reflects on the methodology.

This thesis examines the discursive significance of violence in twentieth century popular culture. It explains the desire and demand for representations of violence by analyzing their dual role as a force of subjectivation and subjugation. I argue that modern subjectivity is historically constituted and delimited by violence but that recognition of this is prevented by an overly instrumental understanding of its role. The reduction of violence to simple blunt force figures prominently within cultural and social theory, leaving the armature of cultural analysis ill equipped to explain the demand for violent representation. By providing a genealogy of the political violence once expressed in examples of public torture and execution but transmuted into the more minute expressions integrated within discursive regimes, this thesis argues that State violence produces a Janus-faced consciousness; a subject split between its performance of political Sovereignty and its political subjugation. The thesis progresses through historical-textual analysis of four phenomenally popular films that were, or continue to be, noted for their excess of violence [The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919); The Sheik (1922), Once Upon a Time in The Kest (1969); and Deliverance (1972)]. While a subject divided by violence explains the dynamic of attraction and repulsion characteristic to violent narratives, these films also comment directly on the relationship between violence and subjectivity. Each film, in its own way-, is concerned with subjectivity understood as a force of violence as well as an object of violence. Their continuing significance suggests a more general practice of the cultural exploration of violence; a desire to understand and know its elusive terms. These narratives, and so popular representations of violence in general, can be understood to provide a focus for audiences to imagine (however momentarily and however questionably) a shared sense of subjectivity and cultural bearings.

This thesis argues that in order to understand the way in which films work one has to place them into a variety of contexts. As well as those of production, these include the historical and culturally specific moments of their creation and consumption. In order to explore how these contexts impact upon the textual construction of individual and groups of films, and our potential understanding of them, this study offers two contrasting case studies of critically neglected areas: Spanish horror cinema since the late-1960s; and US martial arts films since the late 1980s. The first places a range of horror films into very particular historical moments: the Spain of the Franco regime; the transition to democracy in the late 1970s and early 1980s; and the contemporary, increasingly trans-national, Spanish film industry. Each chapter in this section looks in detail at how the shifts and changes in Spanish society, the critical reception of cinema, and production trends, has impacted upon the texts that have appeared on increasingly international screens. The second case study considers the shifts and changes in the production of US martial arts films. It discusses the problem of defining an area of filmmaking that is more commonly associated with a different filmmaking tradition, in a different national cinema. Each chapter here investigates the ways in which 'martial arts movies' operate in strikingly different production contexts. In particular, it contrasts films made within the US mainstream or Hollywood cinema, and the exploitation world that functions on its fringes. Finally, these case studies suggest that a fuller understanding of these works can only be achieved by utilising a number of approaches, both textual and contextual; creating an approach which Douglas Kellner has described as 'multiperspectival'.