The Hero, The Monster, The Wife: Geographies of Remaking and Reclaiming the Contemporary Military Hero

Who is the military hero? What does he represent? And, how is he remade and brought into recognition? This thesis uses four diverse ‘sites of remaking’ to explore these questions, specifically drawing on the Plymouth military community theatre project Boots at the Door, the Invictus Games, Help for Heroes, and the Military Wives Choir. Using these sites, I argue that the remaking and reclaiming of the hero in the framing of war takes place through complex, spatially and temporally situated negotiations which mobilise not only the hero subject himself, but also his performative others. This research draws into conversation feminist theory from Judith Butler, Sara Ahmed, and Lauren Berlant with existing literature in critical military studies and political theory. Crucially, I argue that Butler’s (2009) analysis of the frame does not go far enough in telling us how it is that the frame might function. The research presented in this thesis helps to give texture and detail to our understanding of the framing of war, and allows us to consider how the hero might function within it as a deferred promise of happiness (Ahmed 2010)