Krug C (2022)
Publication Language: English
Publication Status: In press
Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes
Future Publication Type: Article in Edited Volumes
Publication year: 2022
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Edited Volumes: The Male Body in Representation: Returning to Matter
Series: Palgrave Studies in (Re)Presenting Gender
Pages Range: 75-95
ISBN: 978-3-030-88603-5
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-88604-2_4
Christian Krug argues that the British ‘Social Problem film’ Violent Playground (1958) showcases competing but relational models of masculinity in its exploration of working-class juvenile delinquency. These include a performative model, tied to the material body and potentially transgressive, and a conformist one which is more aligned with the requirements of a larger social body and the object of social discipline. Scrutinizing Violent Playground’s ‘sentimental politics’, which works at the intersection of ideology and affective corporeality, Krug’s critical reading foregrounds the film’s attempts to emotionally interpellate the audience by teaching it to ‘feel right’ about its unruly males. Dominant masculinities are posited but remain ideological vanishing points, however, and the film also features other, contingent, bodies that complicate this ideological project.
APA:
Krug, C. (2022). Basil Dearden’s Violent Playground (1958): Masculinity, Class, and Sentimental Politics. In Carmen Dexl, Silvia Gerlsbeck (Eds.), The Male Body in Representation: Returning to Matter. (pp. 75-95). Palgrave Macmillan.
MLA:
Krug, Christian. "Basil Dearden’s Violent Playground (1958): Masculinity, Class, and Sentimental Politics." The Male Body in Representation: Returning to Matter. Ed. Carmen Dexl, Silvia Gerlsbeck, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. 75-95.
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