THE NATURALIZATION OF “GOOD” VIOLENCE IN RECENT FILMS ABOUT THE WAR ON TERROR

dc.contributor.advisor Marcellus, Jane
dc.contributor.author Botia, Alejandro
dc.contributor.committeemember Asthana, Sanjay
dc.contributor.committeemember Kalwinsky, Robert
dc.contributor.department Mass Communications en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2017-05-26T18:05:57Z
dc.date.available 2017-05-26T18:05:57Z
dc.date.issued 2017-04-06
dc.description.abstract This thesis undertakes a narrative analysis of three recent films about the war on terror: Olympus Has Fallen (2013), American Sniper (2014) and London Has Fallen (2016) to study how these movies produce meaning with regard to the worldwide fight against terrorism and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Drawing on Barthes theory of semiotics and Foucaults notion of Subjectification and Knowledge/power, this research explores the construction of the terrorist character and the Arab enemy in fictional narratives and how those meanings produce a body of knowledge which defines the imaginary space to think and talk about such phenomena. This thesis also addresses the discursive practices used to legitimize and naturalize procedures such as the torture of terrorists and the killing of children and women at the hands of U.S. soldiers or American secret agents. Finally, this thesis explores the ways in which these filmic productions have begun to implicate audience members in the perpetration of symbolic violence by constructing specific locations for the viewer, through which the message makes more sense.
dc.description.degree M.S.
dc.identifier.uri http://jewlscholar.mtsu.edu/xmlui/handle/mtsu/5333
dc.publisher Middle Tennessee State University
dc.subject Arabs
dc.subject Films
dc.subject Terrorism
dc.subject Torture
dc.subject Violence
dc.subject War on Terror
dc.subject.umi Film studies
dc.subject.umi Middle Eastern studies
dc.subject.umi Cinematography
dc.thesis.degreegrantor Middle Tennessee State University
dc.thesis.degreelevel Masters
dc.title THE NATURALIZATION OF “GOOD” VIOLENCE IN RECENT FILMS ABOUT THE WAR ON TERROR
dc.type Thesis
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