To the problem of comprehending symbolic violence in screen discourse

Abstract

The article proposes conceptual approaches to the characterizing of mass culture (T. Adorno, M. Horkheimer, J. Baudrillard) including its critique in postmodern cultural thought and considers the advantages of reorienting the research paradigm from the binary opposition of elitist – mass to immersion in the principles of art-activism (B. Groys) on the example of feminist screen study. The author attempts to combine P. Bourdieu's concept of habitus with the emancipatory ideas of gender research to expand the understanding of the problem of symbolic violence. It has been found that some members of the feminist tradition emphasized the family, mostly the husband or the dominant partner, to be the main source of violence. Nowadays, it is obvious that symbolic violence is not concentrated in the family but is scattered in culture (i.e. beauty standards, body shape, etc.). Accordingly, new cultural demands arising as a resistance to certain manifestations of symbolic violence direct/guide to the need for rational construction of one's own project of self.