Mark Gilks
Biographic Data
| ID | 1529705 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mark Gilks |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mark |
| FAMILY NAME | Gilks |
| SIGNATURE | GILKS M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2898-7508 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 6 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 6 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Towards a phenomenological ontology of war
This paper offers a critique of war from an existentialist-phenomenological perspective. Drawing on Martin Heidegger’s theory of ontology and Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s theory of perception, it develops a framework which integrates war and the body – and thus ontology and embodiment – in Critical War Studies. Two arguments are advanced: first, that war is in so far as we embody it (implying that the way in which we embody it determines the way in wh…
The Aesthetic Influences of War: A Phenomenology of Tim Hetherington’s ‘Feedback Loop’
One of the artistic motivations and main contributions of the late war photographer Tim Hetherington was to visually explain how young men fighting in war are influenced by representations of war—a process he referred to as a 'feedback loop'. This article accompanies Hetherington's 'visual explanations' with a theoretical one. Drawing on Gadamer's hermeneutics and Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, I develop a framework for understanding how represen…
Battlefield monuments and popular historicism: A hermeneutic study of the aesthetic encounter with 'Waterloo
Focusing on the case of the tourist visiting battlefield monuments at Waterloo, this article explores how war is historicized in the public imagination through the monumentalization of objects. The argument is two-fold. Firstly, drawing on Gadamer’s hermeneutics, it is argued that ‘tradition’ is constituted in the aesthetic encounter between tourist and monument (as subject and object); such encounters are therefore understood as the genesis of h…
Narrating Being through Phenomena: The Phenomenological and Sociological Insights of Harry Parker’s Anatomy of a Soldier
After being severely injured by a mine explosion in Afghanistan, former British soldier, Harry Parker, wrote about his experiences in his debut novel, Anatomy of a Soldier. Narrated by objects, this ‘novel’ is an innovative and important literary intervention. In this extended review article, I explore the phenomenological and sociological insights of this work. I begin by making two related hermeneutic claims: Firstly, I argue that this work sho…
Aesthetic Experience and the Unfathomable: A Pragmatist Critique of Hermeneutic Aesthetics
In his attack on the notion of immediate experience (Erlebnis), Hans-Georg Gadamer argues that aesthetic experience should be absorbed into hermeneutics because alone it cannot account for the historical nature of experience (Erfahrung); predicated on an ontological theory of art, the unfathomable, therefore, is the sense we have of these infinite hermeneutic depths. I argue that this account is methodologically and existentially unacceptable: me…
The security-prejudice nexus: “Islamist” terrorism and the structural logics of Islamophobia in the UK
A growing body of evidence documents that Islamophobia is a significant social issue in the UK. This evidence also reveals an empirical link to “Islamist” terrorism, revealing a nexus between security and the social emergence of prejudice. Drawing on critical approaches to security and applying them to the case of the UK in 2017, this article explores this nexus conceptually and empirically. To do so, it examines the discourses of various governa…
Battlefield monuments and popular historicism: A hermeneutic study of the aesthetic encounter with 'Waterloo
Focusing on the case of the tourist visiting battlefield monuments at Waterloo, this article explores how war is historicized in the public imagination through the monumentalization of objects. The argument is two-fold. Firstly, drawing on Gadamer’s hermeneutics, it is argued that ‘tradition’ is constituted in the aesthetic encounter between tourist and monument (as subject and object); such encounters are therefore understood as the genesis of h…
The security-prejudice nexus: “Islamist” terrorism and the structural logics of Islamophobia in the UK
A growing body of evidence documents that Islamophobia is a significant social issue in the UK. This evidence also reveals an empirical link to “Islamist” terrorism, revealing a nexus between security and the social emergence of prejudice. Drawing on critical approaches to security and applying them to the case of the UK in 2017, this article explores this nexus conceptually and empirically. To do so, it examines the discourses of various governa…
Aesthetic Experience and the Unfathomable: A Pragmatist Critique of Hermeneutic Aesthetics
In his attack on the notion of immediate experience (Erlebnis), Hans-Georg Gadamer argues that aesthetic experience should be absorbed into hermeneutics because alone it cannot account for the historical nature of experience (Erfahrung); predicated on an ontological theory of art, the unfathomable, therefore, is the sense we have of these infinite hermeneutic depths. I argue that this account is methodologically and existentially unacceptable: me…
The security-prejudice nexus: “Islamist” terrorism and the structural logics of Islamophobia in the UK
A growing body of evidence documents that Islamophobia is a significant social issue in the UK. This evidence also reveals an empirical link to “Islamist” terrorism, revealing a nexus between security and the social emergence of prejudice. Drawing on critical approaches to security and applying them to the case of the UK in 2017, this article explores this nexus conceptually and empirically. To do so, it examines the discourses of various governa…
Narrating Being through Phenomena: The Phenomenological and Sociological Insights of Harry Parker’s Anatomy of a Soldier
After being severely injured by a mine explosion in Afghanistan, former British soldier, Harry Parker, wrote about his experiences in his debut novel, Anatomy of a Soldier. Narrated by objects, this ‘novel’ is an innovative and important literary intervention. In this extended review article, I explore the phenomenological and sociological insights of this work. I begin by making two related hermeneutic claims: Firstly, I argue that this work sho…
Aesthetic Experience and the Unfathomable: A Pragmatist Critique of Hermeneutic Aesthetics
In his attack on the notion of immediate experience (Erlebnis), Hans-Georg Gadamer argues that aesthetic experience should be absorbed into hermeneutics because alone it cannot account for the historical nature of experience (Erfahrung); predicated on an ontological theory of art, the unfathomable, therefore, is the sense we have of these infinite hermeneutic depths. I argue that this account is methodologically and existentially unacceptable: me…
Battlefield monuments and popular historicism: A hermeneutic study of the aesthetic encounter with 'Waterloo
Focusing on the case of the tourist visiting battlefield monuments at Waterloo, this article explores how war is historicized in the public imagination through the monumentalization of objects. The argument is two-fold. Firstly, drawing on Gadamer’s hermeneutics, it is argued that ‘tradition’ is constituted in the aesthetic encounter between tourist and monument (as subject and object); such encounters are therefore understood as the genesis of h…
The Aesthetic Influences of War: A Phenomenology of Tim Hetherington’s ‘Feedback Loop’
One of the artistic motivations and main contributions of the late war photographer Tim Hetherington was to visually explain how young men fighting in war are influenced by representations of war—a process he referred to as a 'feedback loop'. This article accompanies Hetherington's 'visual explanations' with a theoretical one. Drawing on Gadamer's hermeneutics and Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, I develop a framework for understanding how represen…
Towards a phenomenological ontology of war
This paper offers a critique of war from an existentialist-phenomenological perspective. Drawing on Martin Heidegger’s theory of ontology and Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s theory of perception, it develops a framework which integrates war and the body – and thus ontology and embodiment – in Critical War Studies. Two arguments are advanced: first, that war is in so far as we embody it (implying that the way in which we embody it determines the way in wh…
Epistemology (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Political science (3 works) · Sociology (3 works) · Art (2 works) · Hermeneutics (2 works) · Law (2 works) · Meaning (existential (2 works)