Call for papers: Interventions, Critical Studies on Security Guest Editor: Dr. Linda Roland Danil: Visual representations of war and violence: considering embodiment

The journal aims to encourage the study of ‘security’ in and through social critique and to publish theoretically informed scholarship that engages with the practice and politics of security. In keeping with these aims, the Interventions section publishes shorter pieces (1000 -2000 words) that explore security from a range of theoretical perspectives.

Visual representations of war and violence: considering embodiment

The recent release of a number of critically acclaimed films that involve wars of the 20th century – such as Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge (2016), and more recently, Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk (2017) – both of them World War II films – raise questions anew about the representation of war and violence. However, an insufficiently investigated field is the specific embodied experiences of those represented. What is the embodied or “corpographic” (Gregory, 2015) experience of those represented in the films/artistic works/photographs/documentaries/etc. – and therefore what are the specific embodied dimensions of war (McSorley, 2014) that are represented? How do these representations of the embodied dimensions of war preclude the possibility of conceiving of war in a de-realized, surgical, or “virtuous” (Der Derian, 2000) manner? Such embodied experiences may also include the aftermath of war and conflict, such as through the embodied experiences of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). How does an understanding of the embodied experiences of soldiers (as well as the enemy Other) feed into an understanding of the larger geopolitical dynamics at play (Basham, 2013), if at all?

This call is seeking Interventions of no more than 2000 words that explore specific visual representations of war and violence in relation to the above and related questions, in relation to mainly, but not exclusively:

• Films
• Documentaries
• Photography
• Artistic works, such as paintings, drawings, installation art, etc.
• Graphic novels
• Video games

Please send complete submissions to Linda Roland Danil at: lindarolandd@gmail.com by 30 November 2017.

References

Basham, V. 2013. War, Identity and the Liberal State: Everyday Experiences of the Geopolitical in the Armed Forces. London, Routledge.

Der Derian, J. 2000. Virtuous War/Virtual Theory, International Affairs, 76(4), pp. 771 – 788.

Gregory, D. 2015. Gabriel’s Map: Cartography and Corpography in Modern War. In: Muesburger et al. (eds.) Geographies of Knowledge and Power. Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 89 – 121.

McSorley, K. 2014. Towards an embodied sociology of war, The Sociological Review, 62, pp.107 – 128.