The War Body on Screen

Call for Papers
Closing Date: Monday January 9th 2006

This proposal, for an edited collection of =91new=92 essays on the war =20=

body on screen, emerges from what the editors see as a new (post =20
9/11) concern for bringing into view the troubling image of the =20
ruined body, or the body that is absent from vision (as in dead and =20
gone, or captive and hidden). The corporeal figure of the suicide =20
bomber, the hostage, the soldier, the terrorist, and the innocent =20
victim, appear as cultural and ideological vehicles of meaning for =20
the way one is meant to understand conflict, war and terror in the =20
modern age.

In fiction and factual formats, and across a range of diverse, formal =20=

and informal media sites, conflict and warfare is played out in and =20
through the body that has been, or very soon will be, marked by =20
violence. This war body leaks, weeps, defecates, bleeds (sometimes =20
copiously), and unravels. Or, alternatively, this body (that is often =20=

visualised both before and after the harm of war) is hard-bodied, =20
virtual, hi-tech, robotic, resistant to damage, and capable of great =20
damage. Power saturated binaries exist between the legitimate and =20
legitimated bodies of war and bodies that =91unfairly=92 bring =
destruction.

The representation of the war body on screen is encountered in =20
realist and actuality genres, in the new =91domestic=92 sites of amateur =
=20
filmmaking, in the virtual worlds of the Internet and game playing, =20
and in the fantasy genres of horror and science fiction, where the =20
image of the monstrous Other, and the super-iconic cyborg, has been =20
increasingly fused with the wasted or hyper-masculine body of the =20
soldier, in settings where fictional/fantasy war is actually conjured =20=

up through the visual databanks of actual wars, and vice versa.

The editors, then, take the war body to be any body that is caught up =20=

in the symbolic signification of terror and ruination. This could =20
include the ruined body of the soldier, terrorist, suicide bomber, or =20=

hostage; the (absent) body of the =91returning=92 corpse; the cyborg =
body =20
of the modern soldier; the =91horror=92 war body; the captive body; the =20=

innocent body; the body of the child; and the body of the journalist.

The collection extends work done in single case studies such as =20
Historian Joanna Bourke=92s work on the male body of the First World =20
War (Dismembering the male) and is designed to move beyond her work =20
on the psychology of war and the damaged body. Thus the collection is =20=

encouraging a multi-discipline approach.

The editors welcome proposals that take the war body as their primary =20=

site of investigation and analysis. Proposals can take a text based =20
approach, and/or one that explores the war body in terms of the =20
contemporary geo-political landscape. Analysis of the impact of new =20
media and information technologies on the construction and =20
transmission of war bodies, are also highly encouraged.

Proposals, of approximately 500 words can be sent electronically to:

Karen Randell =20
Sean Redmond
Principal Lecturer in Film, Senior =20
Lecturer in Film,
Southampton Solent University, Victoria =20
University,
East Park Terrace, =20
Wellington,
Southampton =20
New Zealand

karen.randell_at_solent.ac.uk =20
sean.redmond_at_vuw.ac.nz

Closing Date: Monday January 9th 2006
 =20=

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Received on Sun Oct 23 2005 - 23:10:18 EDT