Book excerpt: Ten essays explore violence in relation to notions of difference, representation, and power; and the role of mediation in providing communal space in which cultural differences can interplay without conflict. Among the topics are the semiotics of windows and television screens, gender relations in contemporary film, and the image of Mormons in popular literature. The fiction of Kafka, Lu Xun, Conrad Aiken, Toni Morrison, and Ronald Sukenick is also examined. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.