Formations of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland [Paperback]

Allen Feldman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 13, 1991 | ISBN-10: 0226240711 | ISBN-13: 978-0226240718 | Edition: 1

"A sophisticated and persuasive late-modernist political analysis that consistently draws the reader into the narratives of the author and those of the people of violence in Northern Ireland to whom he talked. . . . Simply put, this book is a feast for the intellect"—Thomas M. Wilson, American Anthropologist

"One of the best books to have been written on Northern Ireland. . . . A highly imagination and significant book. Formations of Violence is an important addition to the literature on political violence."—David E. Schmitt, American Political Science Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 327 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (August 13, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226240711
• ISBN-13: 978-0226240718
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #760,833 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, July 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Formations of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland (Paperback)

This is an absorbing account well worth reading. The oral history segments are fascinating and informative. The scholarly analysis, though insightful, is not meant for the casual reader. Students of Irish politics will like this book, but they may need a political theorist specializing in the body to help them understand the more involved analytical segments. Worth reading.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Violence in Northern Ireland, May 27, 2008

By 

Belquis - See all my reviews

This review is from: Formations of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland (Paperback)

Feldman explores narratives of political violence in Northern Ireland based on testimonies of paramilitaries. The anthropological project goes far beyond an ethnography of the conflict: unveiling the unconscious symbolical meaning of practices of fighting and suppression, Feldman delineates the theoretical foundations of an anthropology of violence.
This is a difficult book for the rich theoretical material discussed (especially drawing on Lacan). But there are also a lot of ethnographic materials, which makes it a fundamental document for the history of the conflict in Northern Ireland: street guerilla, politics of arrest, protest in prison.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A most facinating and informative book!!!, December 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Formations of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland (Hardcover)

To read this book took more time and capacity than I had expected. Most of the students in my group choosed not to read this book, because of its reputation which was rather ambivalent. I decided not to give it up before I had given it a try, and I do not regret a moment... I have to admit that my frustration (but indeed my admiration too) grew during the reading. The theme is a complexe one, but the author has taken his therorethical fundation seriously. As a book most theoretically influenced by Michel Foucault and Friedrich Nietzsche, takes theese two philosophers out of the abstract theroretical discourse and add to it the empirically based reality of Northern Ireland. The manner in which this has been done is elequant; the mixing between the oral histories told by the informants together with the analytical parts in between. The book is absolute worth reading, and the insight one (hopefully) gets through Feldmans narration can be used on several arenas and in different academic diciplins, for my part in social science.