Animal Constellations: An investigation into the censorship of animal violence in British cinema

In this thesis I combine the work of Adorno and Wittgenstein in order to investigate the censorship of animal violence in British cinema. The philosophies that underpin this thesis share a rejection of the idea that there is a neat and linear correspondence between language and reality. This project treats language and reality as inseparable, but in a very specific way. Adorno’s notion of constellations provides the main theoretical framework, but I also make use of Wittgenstein’s thinking on ‘family resemblances’, rule following, and his tool analogy. Through this framework, the following thesis demonstrates that the myriad concepts and social activities that make up the censorship of animal violence in British cinema are not self-identical. That is to say, this thesis shows that the meaning of any word is its usage, but to understand the activity through which a word is used one must analyse the broader social structures that make such activity possible. Rather than assuming that words such as ‘censorship’, ‘animal’, and ‘violence’ have an essential meaning, this thesis will look at how they are used within some of the forms of life that relate to the censorship of animal violence in British cinema. With this in mind, the investigation that takes place in this thesis will move from the film screen to the zoo to the censor’s office and back again.