Rupert Goldsworthy

Consuming/ / Terror Rupert Goldsworthy

CONSUMING//TERROR is a dynamic academic analysis of the Baader-Meinhof, the self-proclaimed "urban guerrilla cell" active in West Germany in the 1970s and '80s. The book traces the visual history of the Red Army Faction (RAF) and its relations both to the history of left-wing iconography and the genre of radical chic. This study concentrates on the era when terrorism first entered the Western news media through spectacular bombings, hijackings and assassinations. Located on the frontlines of the Cold War, the story of the RAF provides an excellent lens with which to study the visual components of terror. Since that time, public conceptions of the RAF have shifted in significant ways, as images which initially emerged in the news media have gradually become processed and reframed through recycling in cinema, historical studies, pop culture and fine art. CONSUMING//TERROR explores how the RAF, like Che Guevara, have seeped into popular culture, fashion and art, moving through contexts where they become floating signifiers for rebellion that have been stripped of political and historical clarity.