The Fictional Dimension Of The School Shooting Discourse

Ever since the 1990s, school shootings have shocked the public in their brutality, their suddenness, and their inexplicability. While film and literature have played a role in the heated debates about so-called copycat crimes, the growing body of fictionalizations of school shootings has been neglected thus far. However, in a discourse in which the boundaries between fiction and reality are increasingly blurred, this book shows how fiction shapes and structures, challenges and disrupts cultural processes of meaning-making. Hence, for a better understanding of the school shooting phenomenon, the relevance of fiction on all levels of discourse construction requires thorough analysis. This book therefore develops a new approach to the role of fiction for contemporary forms of excessive violence. By combining narrative theory with insights from sociology and other disciplines, it provides the means for apprehending and describing the relevance of fiction for contemporary discourses. Furthermore, it provides exemplary analyses of more specific functions of literary and filmic fictionalizations of school shootings between 2000 and 2016.

The chapters contained in this handbook address key issues concerning the aesthetics, ethics, and politics of violence in film and media. In addition to providing analyses of representations of violence, they also critically discuss the phenomenology of the spectator, images of atrocity in international cinema, affect and documentary, violent video games, digital infrastructures, cruelty in art cinema, and media and state violence, among many other relevant topics. The Palgrave Handbook of Violence in Film and Media updates existing studies dealing with media and violence while vastly expanding the scope of the field. Representations of violence in film and media are ubiquitous but remain relatively understudied. Too often they are relegated to questions of morality, taste, or aesthetics while judgments about violence can themselves be subjected to moral judgment. Some may question whether objectionable images are worthy of serious scholarly attention at all. While investigating key examples, the chapters in this handbook consider both popular and academic discourses to understand how representations of violence are interpreted and discussed. They propose new approaches and raise novel questions for how we might critically think about this urgent issue within contemporary culture.

In 1992, after re-certification as a Professional Teacher in Colorado and upon my re-entry into the world of education, I knew that there was something desperately wrong. The things that one AVOIDS in order to maintain an independent status as a free individual were present in the dynamics of the classroom. In my usual style of protest, I wrote a prophetic poem from the perspective of a student that was a portent of the violence that was to occur several years later. After the Columbine Massacre, the murder and suicide of High School students and a teacher on Apri1 20, 1999, I knew I had to delve deeply into the reason why I wrote that "poem. " This manuscript is a result of three summers and eight to ten hours a day of analysis and research into the causes of rage and the will of school violence. As this manuscript is written from the perspective of one who has been the teacher in hundreds of classrooms and from one that has met thousands of students; it is my hope that this manuscript will be read by students themselves as well as teachers, parents, administrators, and legislators and anyone who directly or indirectly makes decisions that affect the children. There is a cause as well as a solution of school shooting. The cause is one that affects the freedom of every American individual. "The defining lines of the individual have not only been extrinsically formed by the external forces of Behaviorism; they have been bent in the name of openness' to resemble a flat line symbolic of the dieing soul of America, of the morbidity, and of the general party lines of the totalitarian governments where the enterprise of Behaviorism was forced in the realm of science'."

Ever since the 1990s, school shootings have shocked the public in their brutality, their suddenness, and their inexplicability. While film and literature have played a role in the heated debates about so-called copycat crimes, the growing body of fictionalizations of school shootings has been neglected thus far. However, in a discourse in which the boundaries between fiction and reality are increasingly blurred, this book shows how fiction shapes and structures, challenges and disrupts cultural processes of meaning-making. Hence, for a better understanding of the school shooting phenomenon, the relevance of fiction on all levels of discourse construction requires thorough analysis. This book therefore develops a new approach to the role of fiction for contemporary forms of excessive violence. By combining narrative theory with insights from sociology and other disciplines, it provides the means for apprehending and describing the relevance of fiction for contemporary discourses. Furthermore, it provides exemplary analyses of more specific functions of literary and filmic fictionalizations of school shootings between 2000 and 2016.

Abstract: Throughout the 1990s in the United States, a series of suburban school shootings perpetrated by young, white males disrupted contemporary perceptions of American youth, often a population configured in terms of ideal whiteness. In conjunction with sensationalized media coverage of school shootings, various fictional portrayals of suburban youth violence also emerged throughout this period as what Henry Giroux has called "public pedagogy" that served to further influence national perceptions of youth. In this body of film, television and literary narratives, school violence is often related to other national concerns surrounding American youth identity such as deviant sexuality and teen pregnancy. While a good deal of scholarly attention has focused on popular representations of education and youth generally, little has been written about these specific fictionalizations of school shootings and what they signify. This dissertation offers a feminist, discursive analysis of these fictional narratives of suburban school violence and argues that rampage violence narratives are intricately connected to national anxieties regarding youth, citizenship, threats to white masculinity, and American identity. In order to illustrate the complexities of themes present across popular culture mediums, my research delves into the purpose of the narratives and what they signify about contemporary American youth identity. Thus, my dissertation will explore representations of youth violence from a variety of angles that prioritize intertextual connections. Specifically, I offer a comparative analysis of portrayals of urban versus suburban school violence, explore the creation of gay male shooters as protagonists, and analyze fictional female shooter characters and teen pregnancy storylines. As well, my dissertation examines the genre phenomenon of young adult novels portraying school violence in order to place these novels in dialogue with other "adult" narratives. Throughout my dissertation I explicate the ways in which school shooting narratives reflect and challenge political and academic debates that situate American youth as current and future citizens in the U.S.

We can't escape the headlines of mass murders occurring in our schools. The very place where children are sent to be educated. The very place where they should be safe and free from danger. Sadly, school shootings have become the new normal. These horrific crimes and events lead us to ask - Is a mass murderer born or created? What makes a school shooter? Is it availability of guns? Is it mental illness? Could it be something else? Shouldn't we look for a cause? This novelette explores these questions.

For readers of Marieke Nijkamp's This Is Where It Ends, a powerful and timely contemporary classic about the aftermath of a school shooting. Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets. Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends, and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life. Jennifer Brown's critically acclaimed novel now includes the bonus novella Say Something, another arresting Hate List story.

A New York Times Bestseller "A moving petition to America that it not look away from the catastrophes at Columbine, Newtown, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, and, yes, Parkland. It succeeds as an in-depth report about the “generational campaign” in the aftermath of the Parkland tragedy, a bi-partisan movement advocating serious gun reform.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Columbine offers an intimate, deeply moving account of the extraordinary teenage survivors who became activists and pushed back against the NRA and feckless Congressional leaders—inspiring millions of Americans to join their grassroots #neveragain movement. Nineteen years ago, Dave Cullen was among the first to arrive at Columbine High, even before most of the SWAT teams went in. While writing his acclaimed account of the tragedy, he suffered two bouts of secondary PTSD. He covered all the later tragedies from a distance, working with a cadre of experts cultivated from academia and the FBI, but swore he would never return to the scene of a ghastly crime. But in March 2018, Cullen went to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School because something radically different was happening. In nearly twenty years witnessing the mass shootings epidemic escalate, he was stunned and awed by the courage, anger, and conviction of the high school’s students. Refusing to allow adults and the media to shape their story, these remarkable adolescents took control, using their grief as a catalyst for change, transforming tragedy into a movement of astonishing hope that has galvanized a nation. Cullen unfolds the story of Parkland through the voices of key participants whose diverse personalities and outlooks comprise every facet of the movement. Instead of taking us into the mind of the killer, he takes us into the hearts of the Douglas students as they cope with the common concerns of high school students everywhere—awaiting college acceptance letters, studying for mid-term exams, competing against their athletic rivals, putting together the yearbook, staging the musical Spring Awakening, enjoying prom and graduation—while moving forward from a horrific event that has altered them forever. Deeply researched and beautifully told, Parkland is an in-depth examination of this pivotal moment in American culture—and an up-close portrait that reveals what these extraordinary young people are like. As it celebrates the passion of these astonishing students who are making history, this spellbinding book is an inspiring call to action for lasting change.

The reviews are in! This Is Where It Ends, the #1 New York Times bestseller and one of the Best Books of the Decade (Buzzfeed, Paste Magazine, BookRiot), "could break you." "I am speechless." "The saddest book I have ever read." "Literally tore my heart out." Go inside a heartbreaking fictional school shooting, minute-by-terrifying-minute. Everyone has a reason to fear the boy with the gun... 10:00 a.m.: The principal of Opportunity, Alabama's high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve. 10:02 a.m.: The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class. 10:03 a.m.: The auditorium doors won't open. 10:05 a.m.: Someone starts shooting. Over the course of 54 minutes, four students must confront their greatest hopes, and darkest fears, as they come face-to-face with the boy with the gun. In a world where violence in schools is at an all-time high and school shootings are a horrifyingly common reality for teenagers, This Is Where It Ends is a rallying cry to end the gun violence epidemic for good. Praise for This Is Where It Ends: A Buzzfeed Best Young Adult Book of the Decade A Paste Magazine Best Teen Book of the Decade A Book Riot Biggest YA Book of the Decade A Professional Book Nerds Best Book of the Decade A Bustle.com Most-Anticipated YA Novel A Goodreads YA Best Books Pick A Goodreads Choice Award Finalist for Young Adult Fiction Kids Indie Next List Pick "Marieke Nijkamp's brutal, powerful fictional account of a school shooting is important in its timeliness." —Bustle.com "A gritty, emotional, and suspenseful read and although fictionalized, it reflects on a problematic and harrowing issue across the nation." —Buzzfeed "A compelling, brutal story of an unfortunately all-too familiar situation: a school shooting. Nijkamp portrays the events thoughtfully, recounting fifty-four intense minutes of bravery, love, and loss." —BookRiot

Attempts to remove Catcher from high schools as an "un-American" text have generated continuous and extensive controversy, distinguishing it as one of the most frequently taught postwar novels - and the most frequently censored."--BOOK JACKET.