Rules and Violence / Regeln und Gewalt: On the Cultural History of Collective Violence from Late Antiquity to the Confessional Age / Zur Kulturgeschichte der kollektiven Gewalt von der Spätantike bis zum konfessionellen Zeitalter

Even though violence often functions irrationally, recent research has suggested that, as a form of nonverbal communication, violence follows certain rules. The essays explore this phenomenon, with a special focus on collective violence. They investigate examples taken from the cultural and literary history of the premodern era to examine rules of violent action, rules that provoke violence, and rules about discussing violence.