Table Of ContentSilke Braselmann
The Fictional Dimension of the School Shooting Discourse
Buchreihe der ANGLIA/
ANGLIA Book Series
Edited by
Lucia Kornexl, Ursula Lenker, Martin Middeke,
Gabriele Rippl, Daniel Stein, Hubert Zapf
Advisory Board
Laurel Brinton, Philip Durkin, Olga Fischer, Susan Irvine,
Andrew James Johnston, Christopher A. Jones, Terttu Nevalainen,
Derek Attridge, Elisabeth Bronfen, Ursula K. Heise, Verena Lobsien,
Laura Marcus, J. Hillis Miller, Martin Puchner
Volume 65
Silke Braselmann
The Fictional
Dimension of the
School Shooting
Discourse
Approaching the Inexplicable
For an overview of all books published in this series, please see
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ISBN 978-3-11-064735-8
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-064901-7
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ISSN 0340-5435
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Für Alva Nora
und meine Eltern
Acknowledgements
Spending years researching harrowing mass murder frequently left me speech-
less and, at times, incredibly sad. I could not have finished this book without
the support of my family, friends,colleagues and supervisors.
First and foremost, I want to thank the supervisors of my dissertation:
WolfgangHalletattheUniversityofGießen,whoprovidedmewithinvaluable
support and incrediblyconstructive feedbackon my writingand research, as
well as Jörn Ahrens, who supported me in all the ways a young researcher
could possibly ask for.Thank you!
Further,Iwanttothankthemembersofmydissertationcommittee:Marion
Gymnich, without whom I would not have pursued an academic carreer, and
Joanna Rostek. Also, I want to thank Lauren Greyson and Madeleine LaRue for
their thorough editorial support.
AttheInternationalGraduateCentrefortheStudyofCultureandtheInterna-
tional PhD Programme Literary and Cultural Studies, I was able to develop my
own research embedded in a network of brilliant researchers from all over the
world.IdonotonlythanktheGCSCanditsentirestaff–inparticularitsdirector
AnsgarNünning–butalsomyfantasticcolleaguesandfriendsthatfilltheGrad-
uate Centre with life. Special thanks go out to Alexander Scherr at the English
DepartmentandThomasLinpinselattheDepartmentofSociologyforcountless
hours of inspirational talks in the office, for beers and coffee and many shared
meals.
AtDeGruyter, Iwant tothankthe editorsof the Anglia Book Series,aswell
asmyin-houseeditorsUlrikeKraußandKatjaLehming.Iamthankfulforreceiv-
ing financial support through a stipend by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, and
further want to express my gratitude to everyone at the Dr.-Herbert-Stolzen-
berg-Stiftung and, especially, to the Körber-Stiftung for awarding my work with
the Deutscher Studienpreis 2018.
Thisbookcouldnothavebeenrealizedwithoutmyfantasticfamilyandmy
friends.Aboveall,Iwanttothankmyparents,DorisandFrankBraselmann,for
always supporting me and believing in me, and Daniel Ziesche – my partner,
best friend, brilliant colleague, and father of our wonderful daughter – for
being the fantastic, loving, funny and smart person that he is. Special thanks
go out to Daniela Wawrzyniak, who is always there for me – be it for a good
laugh,agoodtalk,oremergencyproof-reading–,tomysistersAnkeandKerstin,
toChristophErmertforhisfriendshipandaplacetocrashduringallthoseyears
inGießen,andtoHendrikStoppelformasteringtheartofformatting.And,last
butnotleast,IamdeeplythankfulforallmyfriendsinCologneandLeipzigwho
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110649017-001
VIII Acknowledgements
watchedschoolshootingfilmswithmeonSaturdaynightsordraggedmeoutof
my study to talk about the more life-affirming topics: you know who you are.
Contents
Introduction 1
. Society, Media and School Shootings as “the Inexplicable” 1
. School Shootings and Fiction: Research Questions and the State
of Research 6
. Overview: Structure, Corpus Designand Key Concepts 10
Part I: Narrative, Fiction and Fact in the School Shooting
Discourse
We Need to Talk About Amok: Tracing the Narratives of School
Shootings 19
. Describing the Traditions of Rampage Violence: Ancient Amok and
School Shootings 22
.. The Discursive Dynamics of Amok and the School Shooting
Phenomenon 22
.. Popular Explanations for School Shootings and the Challenges of
the School Shooting Debate 39
. Playing the ‘Blame Game’: Media Violence and the School
Shooting Discourse 53
.. The Debate about Media Violence in the Aftermath of School
Shootings 55
.. Prevalent Approaches to Fictional Representations of Excessive
Violence 61
. Meaning-Making in the School Shooting Discourse 77
.. The Necessity of Narrative in the Face of Excessive Violence 77
.. Outlining the Basic Components of the School Shooting
Narrative 82
Blurred Boundaries: The Role of Fiction in the School Shooting
Discourse 90
. Observations of Reciprocity: Illustrating the Relationship of
School Shootings and Fiction with Matt Johnson’s The Dirties
(2013) 94
.. The ‘Look of School Shootings’: Authenticity and
Remediation 95
.. The ReciprocalRelationshipof SchoolShootingsandFiction 106
X Contents
. Shifting Perspectives: New Understandings of Fictional
Representations of School Shootings 124
.. Outlining the Fictional Dimension of the School Shooting
Discourse 125
.. Functions of Literatureand Film in the School Shooting
Discourse 133
Part II: Discursive Functions of School Shooting Literature
and Film
Multimodal Representations of the School Shooting Narrative in Give
a Boy a Gun (2000), Shooter (2004) and
Big Mouth & Ugly Girl (2002) 149
. High School Lifeworlds: Multimodality, Remediation and
Authenticity in Young Adult School Shooting Novels 153
.. Multimodality in Young Adult Fiction 153
.. Aesthetic Experience and the Adolescent Act of Reading 167
. Lessons from Columbine: Functions of Multimodal
Fictionalizations of the School Shooting Narrative 175
.. Remediation and Modes of Remembering 175
.. Processes of Marginalization in the School Shooting
Narrative 189
.. Friendship, Complicity and the Position of the Adolescent
Reader 196
. Conclusion: The Young Adult School Shooting Novel as a Tool for
Prevention 207
Experiencing the ‘Rashomon-Effect’: Functions of Multiperspectivity in
Violent Ends (2015), This is Where It Ends (2016) and
Elephant (2003) 210
. Taking Perspectives, Picking Sides: Multiperspectivity in Young
Adult School Shooting Novels 213
.. Perspective Structures and Perspective Taking in This is Where It
Ends and Violent Ends 215
.. Functions of Literary Multiperspectivity for the School Shooting
Discourse 226
. A Labyrinth of Explanations: Multiperspectivity in Gus Van Sant’s
Elephant 236
.. Describing Multiperspectival Representation in Elephant 238
