Open AccessViolence, crime dystopia and the dialectics of (dis)order inThe Purgefilms
Author(s) -
Liviu Alexandrescu
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
crime, media, culture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.91
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1741-6604
pISSN - 1741-6590
DOI - 10.1177/17416590211039430
Subject(s) - dystopia , purge , order (exchange) , government (linguistics) , sociology , corporate governance , criminology , law , aesthetics , media studies , political science , art , philosophy , management , business , economics , linguistics , finance
Crime dystopia is the cultural site where some of the most gripping fears around the failure to order, civilise and make life secure are expressed. In The Purge film franchise, crime becomes legal in America for a night each year, when violence and destructive impulses are freely discharged and actively encouraged by the US government. This article proposes a critical discussion of some of the criminological themes in the films, reading the institutionalised carnage of Purge night as a metaphor for the systemic violence of the market and further on for liberal governance as a philosophy of war, scarred by the horror of hidden monsters. It then argues that dystopian aesthetics can obscure the failures and antagonisms of the social order in the present, as well as punctuate anti-utopian fears of the future.