On violence / The foundations of violence in ancient Greek literature / Blood, force, influence : studying the representation of violence / The thing and the image : violence in Chinua Achebe's Things fall apart / Modern war and American literature : ironic realism, satire, and escape / Violence in the Bible from Genesis to Job / Street violence and youth in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet / Grappling with violence in Latin American literature / Kill lists : Sade cinema, and the language of the torturer / Intimate subject(ivitie)s : race, gender, and violence in Toni Morrison's Beloved / Excess, (Ir)rationality, and consumerism : violence in No country fro old men and Fight club / "Bluffers and blowhards" : speaking of violence in Ben Fountain's Billy Lynn's long halftime walk / Contemporary war narratives : story-truth, new journalisms, and why we write / The war in "Big two-hearted river"