Disappearing War

Illuminates the extent to which people, images and experiences are erased from cultural representations of contemporary warfare The battles fought in the name of the 'war on terror' have re-ignited questions about the changing nature of war, and the experience of war for those geographically distant from its real world consequences. What is missing from our highly mediated experience of war? What are the intentional and unintentional processes of erasure through which the distortion happens? What are their consequences? Cinema is a key site at which questions about our highly mediated experience of war can be addressed or, more significantly, elided. Looking at a range of films that have provoked debate, from award-winning features like Zero Dark Thirty and American Sniper, to documentaries like Kill List and Dirty Wars, as well as at the work of visual artists like Harun Farocki and Omer Fast, this book examines the practices of erasure in the cinematic representation of recent military interventions. Drawing on representations of war-related death, dying and bodily damage, this provocative collection addresses 'what's missing' in existing scholarly responses to modern warfare; in film studies, as well as in politics and international relations. Contributors Jessica Auchter, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Robert Burgoyne, University of St Andrews Shohini Chaudhuri, University of Essex Cora Sol Goldstein, California State University, Long Beach Thomas Gregory, University of Auckland Janet Harris, award-winning documentary producer/director James Harvey-Davitt, Anglia Ruskin University and University of Greenwich Christina Hellmich, University of Reading Agnieszka Piotrowska, award-winning documentary filmmaker and theorist Lisa Purse, University of Reading