Abstract
This text deals with convergence and divergence in relation to the formation of images of inhumanity in Slovak Roma settlements. Slovak media, social networks, and television reports often contain negative images emphasizing the Roma’s backwardness, irrationality, superstition, and cruelty, and aiming to highlight their inhumanity. This approach has become prevalent even among official state authorities such as the police of the Slovak Republic, shaping the perception of the Roma as monsters. It represents a mobilization strategy that connects and disconnects various disciplinary apparatuses, forming concrete images of monsters. By examining moments of convergence and divergence, which mainly focus on the killing and consumption of canines, the text clarifies the social and material ordering that contributes to the particular arrangement of significance used by the Slovak media and other officials.
Funding source: Focal images: Violence and Inhumanism in contemporary art and media culture
Award Identifier / Grant number: GAČR 22-17984S
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Research funding: The study was funded by the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR), project No. 22-17984S: Focal images: Violence and Inhumanism in contemporary art and media culture.
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