Mediating War and Identity

Figures of Transgression in 20th- and 21st-century War Representation

Lisa Purse, Ute Wölfel

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Year: 2020
• Edition: 0
• eBook ISBN:
  9781474446280
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

In state and public discussion about war and conflict, figures of transgression such as deserters, pacifist and emigrants are often marginalised, but they also play a key role in rethinking cultural and national identity in the wake of military violence. Raising questions of agency, responsibility and culpability in relation to the 'other', their cultural representation can enable reflection on and renegotiation of values and collective norms after the destabilisation of war. Through an interdisciplinary lens, this collection analyses the depiction of these transgressive figures in a variety of visual media, as well as the narrative, socio-cultural, political and historical contexts in which they emerge.

Table of contents

• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• Notes on the Contributors
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Momentary Rupture? Dawn (1928) and the Transgressive Potential of the Edith Cavell Case
• 3 ‘An act of wilful defiance’: Objection, Protest and Rebellion in the Imperial War Museum’s First World War Galleries
• 4 Figures of Transgression in Representations of the First World War on British Television
• 5 The End of Transgression: Fritz Bauer as Traitor on the German Screen
• 6 ‘Just another Kraut’? The Wehrmacht Traitor as ‘Good German’ in Hollywood’s Decision before Dawn (1951)
• 7 Religious Pacifism and the Hollywood War Film: From Sergeant York (1941) to Hacksaw Ridge (2017)
• 8 Military Masculinity and the Deserting Soldier in Stop-Loss (2008)
• 9 Activist, Mother, Filmmaker: Competing Transgressions in the Syrian War Documentary
• 10 Marie Colvin – The War Hero and the ‘Nasty Woman’
• Index