Books in French are on www.livres-cinema.info
Mediating War and Identity
Figures of Transgression in 20th- and 21st-century War Representation
Edited by Lisa Purse and Ute Wölfel
(0 vote)Average rating:
| 0 | rating |  = We can do without |
| 0 | rating |  = Good book |
| 0 | rating |  = Excellent book |
| 0 | rating |  = Unique / a reference |
Your rating: -
Book Presentation:
Examines the processes of conceptualising the self through ambivalent figures like traitors in representations of war
• Offers a genealogy of figures of transgression, and proposes the functions to which such figures are put in the cultural debate about war and its consequences
• Case studies from a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, examining different types of cultural representation
• Pushes forward understanding of specific forms and circumstances of transgression, but also the variety of figures of transgression that can be manifest in cultural representation
• Extends understanding of how figures of transgression are situated in Western visual and media culture, and to what ends
In state and public discussion about war and conflict, figures of transgression such as deserters, pacifist and emigrants are often marginalised, but they also play a key role in rethinking cultural and national identity in the wake of military violence. Raising questions of agency, responsibility and culpability in relation to the ‘other’, their cultural representation can enable reflection on and renegotiation of values and collective norms after the destabilisation of war.
Through an interdisciplinary lens, this collection analyses the depiction of these transgressive figures in a variety of visual media, as well as the narrative, socio-cultural, political and historical contexts in which they emerge.
About the authors:
Dr Lisa Purse is Associate Professor in Film in the Department of Film, Theatre & Television at the University of Reading.
Dr Ute Wolfel is Lecturer in German Studies at the University of Reading
Press Reviews:
This remarkable study illuminates the cultural imaginary of war in a fundamentally new way. Exploring the deep veins of resistance within a narrative frame dominated by symbols of consensus, the authors offer a wholly original reading of one of the most consequential genres of 20 and 21st century life. Timely and important.– Robert Burgoyne, author of The Hollywood Historical Film
See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press
> From the same authors:
Action Cinema Since 2000 (2024)
Dir. Chris Holmlund, Lisa Purse and Yvonne Tasker
Disappearing War (2017)
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Cinema and Erasure in the Post-9/11 World
Dir. Christina Hellmich and Lisa Purse
Subject: Sociology
> On a related topic:
War Representation in British Cinema and Television (2019)
From Suez to Thatcher, and Beyond
Subject: Countries > Great Britain
Hollywood and the Military Bureaucracy (2021)
Depicting America's Fighting Forces at Their Best and Worst
by Bob Herzberg
German Ways of War (2022)
The Affective Geographies and Generic Transformations of German War Films
For No Reason at All (2022)
The Changing Narrative of the First World War in American Film
Destructive Sublime (2018)
World War II in American Film and Media
Specters of War (2012)
Hollywood's Engagement with Military Conflict
The Naval War Film (2007)
Genre, History and National Cinema
Back
