To serve and protect: Textualizing the Falklands conflict

Foster, Kevin Dennis

doi:10.1080/09502389700490131

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…An example of such an approach is given by Kevin Foster (1997) in a comparative account of British and Argentine constructions of national identity during the Falklands War. See also Gareth Stanton (1996) on the relationship between military and empire in the case of Gibraltar.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 98%

'It's a Man's Life!': Soldiers, masculinity and the countryside

Woodward¹

1998

Gender, Place & Culture

126

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This article explores the relationships between soldiers, masculinity and the countryside. It draws on a variety of published materials ranging from army recruitment literature to military autobiography. It is located primarily in conceptual frameworks suggested by feminist and rural studies literatures. Follow ing a brief discussio n of the historical contribution of the military to ideas of rurality, the relationships between soldiers, masculin ity and the country side are explored. First, the ways in which the army constru cts a particular view of the country side are discussed. This view accords the army rights of control over space, dictates a particular way of seeing rural space, and develops a quasi-environ mentalist interpretation of the impact of army activity on the landscape. Second, it is suggested that this conceptualisation of the country side contributes speci cally to the construction of particular (hegemonic) notion s of masculinity. The ideas of adventure and danger are particularly important in this respect. T hird, the role of the body of the soldier in this process is examined. The con struction of a speci c gendered identity through a process of transformation from civilian to soldier is discussed. T he article con cludes by suggesting how the body of the soldier is used to signify particular senses of place.

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Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 98%

'It's a Man's Life!': Soldiers, masculinity and the countryside

Woodward¹

1998

Gender, Place & Culture

126

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“…Newsinger's (1994) analysis of British army memoirs from the Malayan conflict shows their role in the construction of a wider, celebratory discourse of British military prowess and imperial superiority. Analyses of representations of the Falkland Islands in the aftermath of the Falklands/Malvinas conflict (Arquilla & Rasmussen, 2001; contributions to Aulich, 1992; Dodds, 1996, 1998; Foster, 1997, 1999) draw on the detail provided by memoirs to complement broader arguments about the construction of geopolitical discourses circulating around that war, as do analyses of Bosnia and the Bosnian war (Baker, 2011; Robison, 2004; Simms, 2001). …”

Section: Military Memoirs and Popular Geopoliticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘This place isn't worth the left boot of one of our boys’: Geopolitics, militarism and memoirs of the Afghanistan war

Woodward

2012

Political Geography

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This paper argues for the continued significance of the text as a source and focus in critical geopolitical inquiry. It establishes the utility of the military memoir in explorations of popular contemporary geopolitical imaginaries, and considers the memoir as a vector of militarism. The paper examines the memoirs written by military personnel about service in Afghanistan with the British armed forces, specifically about deployments to Helmand province between 2006 and 2012. The paper explores how Afghanistan is scripted through these texts, focussing on the explanations for deployment articulated by their authors, on the representations they contain and promote about other combatants and about civilian non-combatants, and the constitution and expression of danger in the spaces and places of military action which these texts construct and convey. The paper then turns to consider how a reading of the military memoir with reference to the genre of testimonio might extend and inform our understanding and use of these texts as a source for exploring popular geopolitics and militarism.

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“…Our study also believes that the framing of wartime engagements should always be seen in relation to historical and social circumstances specific to the context in which they transpire (Callahan et al, 2006; Reese and Lewis, 2009; Smith, 2005). Foster (1997) demonstrates how the Falklands War was framed in reference to compelling notions of Britain’s national identity and heritage. What is especially interesting about this study is that it provides insights into the interplay between public and private interpretations, highlighting how the official framing of the campaign as a “romantic quest” also informed the way individual participants framed their personal experiences.…”

Section: Norwegian Soldiers In Afghanistanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soldiers without a war? Public and private framings of Norway’s engagement in Afghanistan

Gustavsen

Rafoss

2018

Acta Sociologica

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This article examines how the military engagement in Afghanistan has been framed in the Norwegian public sphere and by veterans who have participated on the ground. Drawing on public documents and personal interview data, the analysis demonstrates how different frames were used in the public and private spheres to convey the meaning of the operation. The analysis focuses in particular on the mismatch experienced by the veterans between the official framing of the operation as a humanitarian endeavor, and their perception of having been at war. In the discussion of the findings, we argue that the study sheds light on broader questions concerning the place of contemporary soldiers in Western societies, where people in general have become largely detached from the direct experience of warfare.

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To serve and protect: Textualizing the Falklands conflict

Cited by 4 publications

References 2 publications

'It's a Man's Life!': Soldiers, masculinity and the countryside

'It's a Man's Life!': Soldiers, masculinity and the countryside

‘This place isn't worth the left boot of one of our boys’: Geopolitics, militarism and memoirs of the Afghanistan war

Soldiers without a war? Public and private framings of Norway’s engagement in Afghanistan

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