The soldier as hunter

Pursuit, prey and display in the War on Terror

Bibliographic Data

ID12914923
AuthorsDeborah Wills (Mount Allison University, corresponding author), Erin Steuter (0000-0001-6706-8016, Mount Allison University)
Year2009
Volume2
Issue2
Pages195-210
Publication date2009-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of War and Culture Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1752-6272 • E-ISSN: 1752-6280
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1386/jwcs.2.2.195_1
OpenAlexW2001650038
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited18

In both political speech and news media discourse, the War on Terror has been persistently metaphorically figured as a hunt for prey. In concert with this figuration, a trope of the soldier as hunter has risen to cultural prominence. This paper examines official government discourses' use of the soldier-as-hunter paradigm, military language and training practice that reflects and augments this paradigm, and media language that uncritically echoes and furthers it. The discursive intersection of government, military, and media language is suggestively reflected in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through soldier's self-representations, particularly through trophy-taking and display. These behaviours evidence the potency, coherence, and influence of the soldier-hunter trope in the ways soldiers construct and circulate images of both themselves as hunter and the enemy as prey

Adversary · Aesthetics · Art · Cartography · Computer security · Construct (python library · Geography · Government (linguistics · Intersection (aeronautics · Linguistics · Literature · Media studies · Movie theater · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Trope (literature · Trophy · Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture · History · Law · Military History and Strategy · Philosophy · Rhetoric and Communication Studies

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