Infernal violence - emotionality of violence in the "Clockwork Orange"

Abstract

Literature has long been offering contents that are relevant for criminology and are an unexploited Source of amazing potential for scientific reflection. Full-blooded contemporary criminology can only be a criminology that takes literature into account. The article shows the applicability of such a research approach in the case of the cult and controversial Clockwork Orange, written by Anthony Burgess. The article presents the picturesque and graphic depictions of the violent protagonist's emotional experiences on a higher level of abstraction (following the principles of qualitative methodology). The author highlights the emotionality of all violent behaviour and the fact that every violent act is constrained within the specific micro and macro social context (which is often violent itself). He advocates a critical criminology of emotion (in statu nascendi).