{"id":{"repo_id":"vcu","oai_identifier":"oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-1585"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/vcu/oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-1585","repository":{"repo_id":"vcu","name":"Virginia Commonwealth University","base_url":"https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/do/oai/"},"display":{"title":"Once Upon a Time in Tarantino-Occupied Carnage: A Study of the Aesthetic Affectations and the Moral Dilemmas Powering Violence in the Revenge Cinema of Quentin Tarantino","abstract":"This thesis examines the critical response to Quentin Tarantino’s representations of screen violence, primarily the violent content in his three revenge thrillers: Kill Bill (2003-4), Inglourious Basterds (2009), and Django Unchained (2012). Throughout Tarantino’s career, critics have attacked him for aestheticizing bloodshed to such a degree that it becomes a glib, pop culture affectation, and the empirically larger amounts of violent content in the revenge thrillers has only encouraged this claim. This paper argues for a recontextualization of how Tarantino wields brutality throughout these three pictures, that the rise in graphic content reflects a greater engagement with social-moral concerns in a manner that is both socially responsible – to echo Susan Sontag’s views on visual representations of violence in Regarding the Pain of Others (2003) – and creatively consistent among those artists looking to retain their cultural significance as they age.","abstract_html":"This thesis examines the critical response to Quentin Tarantino’s representations of screen violence, primarily the violent content in his three revenge thrillers: Kill Bill (2003-4), Inglourious Basterds (2009), and Django Unchained (2012). Throughout Tarantino’s career, critics have attacked him for aestheticizing bloodshed to such a degree that it becomes a glib, pop culture affectation, and the empirically larger amounts of violent content in the revenge thrillers has only encouraged this claim. This paper argues for a recontextualization of how Tarantino wields brutality throughout these three pictures, that the rise in graphic content reflects a greater engagement with social-moral concerns in a manner that is both socially responsible – to echo Susan Sontag’s views on visual representations of violence in Regarding the Pain of Others (2003) – and creatively consistent among those artists looking to retain their cultural significance as they age.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Katz, Joshua"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Richard Fine"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2014,"date_issued":"2014-04-15T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2014-04-15T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:54:02Z","subjects":["Violence","Tarantino","Kill Bill","Django Unchained","Inglourious Basterds","Quentin Tarantino","Arts and Humanities","English Language and Literature"],"languages":[],"rights":["© The Author"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/586"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/586","href":"https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/586","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://doi.org/10.25772/3VE2-Y577","outbound_label":"DOI","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Richard Fine"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Katz, Joshua"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2214-05-10T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Violence","Tarantino","Kill Bill","Django Unchained","Inglourious Basterds","Quentin Tarantino","Arts and Humanities","English Language and Literature"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["© The Author"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://doi.org/10.25772/3VE2-Y577","https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/586"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This thesis examines the critical response to Quentin Tarantino’s representations of screen violence, primarily the violent content in his three revenge thrillers: Kill Bill (2003-4), Inglourious Basterds (2009), and Django Unchained (2012). Throughout Tarantino’s career, critics have attacked him for aestheticizing bloodshed to such a degree that it becomes a glib, pop culture affectation, and the empirically larger amounts of violent content in the revenge thrillers has only encouraged this claim. This paper argues for a recontextualization of how Tarantino wields brutality throughout these three pictures, that the rise in graphic content reflects a greater engagement with social-moral concerns in a manner that is both socially responsible – to echo Susan Sontag’s views on visual representations of violence in Regarding the Pain of Others (2003) – and creatively consistent among those artists looking to retain their cultural significance as they age."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Once Upon a Time in Tarantino-Occupied Carnage: A Study of the Aesthetic Affectations and the Moral Dilemmas Powering Violence in the Revenge Cinema of Quentin Tarantino"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Richard Fine"],"dc:creator":["Katz, Joshua"],"dc:date.available":["2214-05-10T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["This thesis examines the critical response to Quentin Tarantino’s representations of screen violence, primarily the violent content in his three revenge thrillers: Kill Bill (2003-4), Inglourious Basterds (2009), and Django Unchained (2012). Throughout Tarantino’s career, critics have attacked him for aestheticizing bloodshed to such a degree that it becomes a glib, pop culture affectation, and the empirically larger amounts of violent content in the revenge thrillers has only encouraged this claim. This paper argues for a recontextualization of how Tarantino wields brutality throughout these three pictures, that the rise in graphic content reflects a greater engagement with social-moral concerns in a manner that is both socially responsible – to echo Susan Sontag’s views on visual representations of violence in Regarding the Pain of Others (2003) – and creatively consistent among those artists looking to retain their cultural significance as they age."],"dc:identifier":["https://doi.org/10.25772/3VE2-Y577","https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/586"],"dc:rights":["© The Author"],"dc:subject":["Violence","Tarantino","Kill Bill","Django Unchained","Inglourious Basterds","Quentin Tarantino","Arts and Humanities","English Language and Literature"],"dc:title":["Once Upon a Time in Tarantino-Occupied Carnage: A Study of the Aesthetic Affectations and the Moral Dilemmas Powering Violence in the Revenge Cinema of Quentin Tarantino"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:54:02Z"}