Chainani, Armaan Mohan (2025) Gaza and the Grotesque: Affective Solidarities in the Age of Mediated Violence. Masters thesis, Concordia University.
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Abstract
This thesis articulates a novel analytical framework called grotesque visuality to interrogate the spread of violent imagery in digital networks. Vis-a-vis the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip (2023—), I look into modern networked structures of communication to explore how the grotesque body functions within the co-constitutive relationship between state control and political protest. Specifically, I focus on its embodied, or haptic, sensibilities and argue that the visual violations of the body can elicit political solidarity through a collective visceral response.
By analyzing three videos that have circulated on social media platforms—each a vivid depiction of violence from the genocide—I provide some insight into how grotesque media objects serve as a sites of contestation for competing goals and ideologies. However, this thesis focuses on their regenerative capabilities, how they can bridge disparate populations together through the negotiation of attention and representation.
Analyzed for their digital circulation, audience engagement and role in the broader political landscape, my exploration of the case studies in this thesis unravels the layers of the grotesque visual framework that make up this modality of representing and seeing embodied violence while painting a multidirectional image of the power relations that undergird its visibility. Through an interdisciplinary approach that draws from media studies, discourse analysis, and grassroots activism, my thesis further contextualizes our relationship to political violence and the affective solidarities they may elicit.
| Divisions: | Concordia University > Faculty of Fine Arts > Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
| Authors: | Chainani, Armaan Mohan |
| Institution: | Concordia University |
| Degree Name: | M.A. |
| Program: | Film and Moving Image Studies |
| Date: | 16 June 2025 |
| Thesis Supervisor(s): | Atoui, Farah |
| ID Code: | 996058 |
| Deposited By: | Armaan Chainani |
| Deposited On: | 04 Nov 2025 16:22 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Nov 2025 16:22 |
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