The Abu Ghraib Effect
Of the controversies raised by the release of photographs showing prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, a discussion has emerged within the scholarly community about the aesthetics of the pictures themselves. Susan Sontag and others have noted the resemblance between the Abu Ghraib pictures and photographs of lynchings in the U.S.; several commentators have noted the influence of amateur pornography. To art history professor Eisenman, the Abu Ghraib photos unconsciously mimic the classical pathos formula, in which the suffering of anonymous supplicants at the hands of torturers is eroticized so as to reiterate the superiority of the conqueror. Ubiquitous in classical art, the pathos formula's imagery of eroticized, rationalized torture was displaced in the eighteenth century by art that showed suffering as degrading. Manifest in the photography of Abu Ghraib, the pathos formula not only implies a reinvigoration of Pre-Enlightenment sensibilities but also explains why public outcry about Abu Ghraib torture has been relatively limited. Scholarly, succinct, and flush with photos, Eisenman's analysis is art history at its most compelling.Brendan DriscollCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved