Normalizing violence through front-line stories: the case of<i>American Sniper</i>

Pomarède, Julien

doi:10.1080/23337486.2016.1246995

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Critical military studies (Basham, Belkin, & Gifkins, 2015), similarly, point to the prevalence of violence and its invisibilisation (Hast, 2022; Millar & Tidy, 2017). Studies refer to wartime remembrance invisibilising ‘militarized state violence against the racialized populations of many parts of the world’ (Reeves & Heath-Kelly, 2020, p. 247), the ‘normalization of violence’ (Pomarède, 2018) in popular culture representations of soldiers’ battlefield experiences (see also Lucaites & Simons, 2017), and the relabelling of violent interventions as ‘peacekeeping’ ones (Sandman, 2023; see also Chwastiak, 2015 on the relabelling of torture).…”

Section: The Invisibilisation Of Violence In Organisationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Control Through Violence: A situational analysis of embodied practices of violence in a refugee reception centre

Arnold,

Costas

2023

Organization Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper explores how violence is mobilised for control purposes in organisations. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted at the total institution we name Arrival—a German refugee reception centre—we develop how private security guards engage in practices of signalling and exerting violence vis-a-vis Arrival’s residents to enforce rules. Our research contributes to the extant literature in three ways: First, we elucidate how practices of violence, following a logic of escalation and deterrence, work for organizational control purposes. Second, our research shifts the extant focus from discursive to embodied forms of invisibilization by showing how violence is made simultaneously visible and invisible in its very enactment. Third, it provides insights into situational interactions rather than conditions of violence in total institutions.

show abstract

Section: The Invisibilisation Of Violence In Organisationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Control Through Violence: A situational analysis of embodied practices of violence in a refugee reception centre

Arnold,

Costas

2023

Organization Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In Sweden, by comparison, the engagement in violence is still an event of the unexpected. In the US or UK context, the public is exposed to representations of 'shiny happy warfare' (Jobs 2014) or confronted with legends of sniper heroism (Pomarède 2018). It is overwhelmed by the hypervisibility of the liberal warrior body (Welland 2017), or with images of superiority (Sontag 2019, 57) and spectacular bombardment (Chouliaraki 2007, 133).…”

Section: On War's Presence In Western Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

How violence dis/appears in narratives on war-like operations: a conceptual framework

Sandman

2021

Critical Military Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The present article advances a conceptual framework for the critical study of the representation of war and military violence. Essentially, it offers a conceptualization of dis/appearances of violence in public discourse, which combines the concepts of in/visibilization, de/ naturalization, and dis/identification. Though they overlap and interweave in terms of what they capture, all three are considered relevant to fully elaborate how violence may dis/appear in narratives on war-like operations. Furthermore, the article exemplifies how one may make use of the conceptual framework, by exploring the representation of violence in Swedish public political debate at the time of active engagement in peace-enforcement and offensive military operations. More specifically, the empirical illustration critically examines the parliamentary debates on ONUC in Congo 1960-1964 and ISAF in Afghanistan 2002. The analysis reveals and details how violence continuously tends to disappear as a reality, as a dilemma and/or as Sweden's own practice and choice. At present, the scholarly debate mainly focuses on the US or the UK. To advance our understanding of the ways in which violence is normalized and made possible, we need refined conceptual tools that allow us to explore the complexity and political work of representations of war and violence in various contexts.

show abstract

“…These movies help people and individuals to understand the political problems and evils. Pomarède (2016) carves down the fact that "war on terror" is very popular phrase among US veterans. The soldiers fighting on the front lines give a deep image of the war to people staying back.…”

Section: Methodology and Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural (Mis)Appropriation, Ideological Essentialism and Language: Analysis of Stereotyping in Hollywood Movie

Ullah

Shahzor

2017

IJEL

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study analyzes the monolithic-cum-essentialist portrayal of the non-Euro-American world in Hollywood movies, bringing forth the fact that the project of Othering is still at play but in different manifestations. This qualitative research endeavors to apply the concept of Orientalism to carry out a postcolonial analysis of the movie American Sniper. As Edward Said, decades ago, proposed a way to understand the notions of the West regarding East in his famous work Orientalism, the study helps to understand the embedded ideologies which are promoted through movies, and the way these discourses are used to shape the Western worldview about the East. The study highlights the fact that Hollywood, famous for entertainment and advanced motion pictures, is also being used for shaping the narrative of the superiority of the West. As Islam and Arabs have always remained in the limelight of the Hollywood movies, this special association of the entertainment media with the Islamic Orient is not just for the purpose of amusement but also to (un)consciously build unbefitting images of the East and portray it as a monolith of an inferior status for the common viewer in the West.

show abstract

Normalizing violence through front-line stories: the case ofAmerican Sniper

Cited by 8 publications

References 22 publications

Control Through Violence: A situational analysis of embodied practices of violence in a refugee reception centre

Control Through Violence: A situational analysis of embodied practices of violence in a refugee reception centre

How violence dis/appears in narratives on war-like operations: a conceptual framework

Cultural (Mis)Appropriation, Ideological Essentialism and Language: Analysis of Stereotyping in Hollywood Movie

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About