Våldets estetik. Estetisk praxis, social distinktion och filmbytande unga män

Bourdieu, filmswappers and the æsthetics of video nasties The article discusses different ways of arguing cultural value among Swedish Film Swappers. Against a background of theories on caste as a structuring principle for social status, the author discusses on the one hand a countercultural aesthetic strategy aimed at legitimating otherwise illegitimate cultural artifacts such as video nasties (videofilms with graphically explicit depictions of phy- sical violence) by either incorporating them into the legitimate film canon, or by replacing the legitimate canon with a new canon based on such films, and on the other hand a subcultural strategy that refuses to discuss the films in terms of art and legitimacy at all.