Article (Scientific journals)
Normalizing violence through front-line stories: the case of American Sniper
Pomarède, Julien
2018In Critical Military Studies, 4 (1), p. 52 - 71
Peer reviewed
 

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Keywords :
American Sniper; battlefield; Chris Kyle; discourse; emotions; experience; popular culture; violence; war on terror; History; Social Sciences (miscellaneous); Sociology and Political Science; Political Science and International Relations; Management Science and Operations Research; Law
Abstract :
[en] The objective of the present article is to explore the image of the ‘war on terror’ in US popular culture through soldiers’ battlefield experience. The main argument is that the ‘living’ (or ‘embarked’) narration of front lines creates an effect of power that gives the soldier a legitimate authority to take part in the representation of war. As such, the ‘view from the battlefield’ can be conceptualized as a political gesture as it involves the production of shared representations of war. The article focuses on the American Sniper legend, which is a heroic narration of the experience in Iraq of a former Navy SEAL, Chris Kyle. I propose to understand the conditions that made possible the collective normalization of a soldier considered ‘the most lethal sniper in the US military history’. The study of this case brings to the fore two main conclusions. First, the political dimension of American Sniper paradoxically emerges from an apolitical discourse that claims to tell the ‘real story’ of a soldier on front lines. Second, war appears at the same time as an agonistic struggle for life where killing is the condition for survival and as a banal and trans-historical reality embodied into ‘ordinary’ human emotions.
Disciplines :
Political science, public administration & international relations
Author, co-author :
Pomarède, Julien  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de science politique > Politique internationale : International Politics In a Comparative Perspective ; Department of Political Science, Recherche et Enseignement en Politique Internationale (REPI–Research unit), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
Language :
English
Title :
Normalizing violence through front-line stories: the case of American Sniper
Publication date :
02 January 2018
Journal title :
Critical Military Studies
ISSN :
2333-7486
eISSN :
2333-7494
Publisher :
Taylor and Francis Ltd.
Volume :
4
Issue :
1
Pages :
52 - 71
Peer reviewed :
Peer reviewed
Available on ORBi :
since 24 October 2023

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