Hostage videos in the War on Terror

Abstract

About the book: The bodies of the dead or the soon to be dead litter the media landscape and they frame the representation of war, terror and conflict in the modern age. What are the meanings carried and conveyed by these war bodies on screen? The discussion of the war body on screen is best served by drawing upon multiple and diverging view points, differing academic backgrounds and methodological approaches. A multi-disciplinary approach is essential in order to capture and interpret the complexity of the war body on screen and its many manifestations. In this collection, contributors utilize textual analysis, psychoanalysis, post-colonialism, comparative analysis, narrative theory, discourse analysis, representation and identity as their theoretical footprints. Analysis of the impact of new media and information technologies on the construction and transmission of war bodies is also been addressed. The War Body on Screen has a highly original structure, with themed sections organized around ‘the body of the soldier’; ‘the body of the terrorist’; and ‘the body of the hostage’