Analyzing Docudramas in International Relations: Narratives in the Film A Murderous Decision

Visual Biopolitics: Outlining a Research (Sub)field

“…Each political concept has its emotional dimension (friendship and enmity, war and peace, justice and crime, nationalism and cosmopolitanism, security and insecurity, etc.). Arguably, "visuality might have a specific power through its affective, mimetic, immediate, and performative qualities," 51 particularly when it comes to the study of postmaterialist politics of identity, from celebrity performances to electoral rallies. This type of "power of affect" operates as an "assemblage of techniques and technologies of affective event amplification through which the cultural and corporeal logics of intervention come to resonate emotionally."…”

Representing torture in Zero Dark Thirty (2012): Popular culture as a site of norm contestation

“…In terms of methodology, my interpretation of ZDT is informed by the film analytical approach of David Bordwell and its application to IR (Bordwell, 1985; Heck, 2017). In his book Making Meaning (1991), Bordwell distinguishes between two modes of analysis, i.e.…”

“…ZDT is an ‘important contribution(s) to the public discourse in which the meanings of these events are negotiated’ (Heck, 2017: 366). As one critic wrote, ZDT ‘is an exercise in instant history and hot-after-the-fact mythmaking’ (Powers, 2013: 303).…”

“…ZDT is a hybrid genre, including elements of a docudrama and action thriller. 5 So-called docudramas ‘set historical and political events “in scene”’ (Heck, 2017: 368) and reassemble first-hand accounts of real events with fictional elements. Like a typical Hollywood genre film, ZDT draws on news headlines and actual events between 2001 and 2012.…”

Politik in Fernsehserien

“…Der Beitrag geht in drei Schritten vor. Zunächst werde ich einige methodologische Überlegungen einer Filmpolitologie zusammenfassen , Heck 2017 und mich auch auf Klassiker der Filmanalyse (Mikos 2015, Bienk 2014) beziehen. Hieraus entwickle ich eine pragmatische Heuristik, die meine eigene Analyse der Serie 24 anleitet.…”