Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-5bvrz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-08T23:23:17.078Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Afterword: War Play

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Diana Taylor
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

On 27 February 2009, The Essays for this PMLA issue on war were coming in, against a background of various wars. The Iraq War had claimed over 100,000 civilian lives. The newly elected Obama administration vowed to amp up efforts in Afghanistan. The rubble in Gaza still smoldered from the recent Israeli attacks. The ongoing conflict in Darfur had already left 300,000 people dead, not to mention the 2.5 million displaced. When President George W. Bush left office, his boundless war on terror had exacted more lives, money, civil-liberty concessions, and international goodwill than one could even begin to tally. These were just the newsworthy wars that happened to be featured that month in the New York Times. Other, “low-intensity” wars—the devastating fighting in East Congo, the ongoing Zapatista uprising, Colombia's fifty-year-old armed conflict, Sri Lanka's civil war, and similar struggles—simmered on the back burner. The topic of war seemed as urgent that February morning as it had two years earlier, when the editors proposed this special issue. Ironically, that morning's Times showcased “Weekend at War” in its Escapes section (Sokol). The oversize image showed a crowded ballroom full of happy dancers in World War II outfits swinging to a big band orchestra—the uniforms, insignia, hats, hairdos all conjured up another time. The caption read, “It's winter 2009, but for hundreds of reenactors, it's December 1944 at the Battle of the Bulge.”

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 124 , Issue 5: Special Topic War , October 2009 , pp. 1886 - 1895
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Works Cited

“Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment: Justification Statement.” 2006. APA Division 48, Soc. for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence, n.d. Web. 23 July 2009.Google Scholar
“Against Torture: Joint Resolution of the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association: 1985 Position Statement.” APA Online. Amer. Psychological Assn., n.d. Web. 23 July 2009.Google Scholar
American Historical Association. “Resolution on United States Government Practices Inimical to the Values of the Historical Profession.” American Historical Association. Amer. Historical Assn., 24 Jan. 2008. Web. 26 June 2009.Google Scholar
Augusto, Boal. Theatre of the Oppressed. Trans. Charles, A. and McBride, Maria-Odilia Leal. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1985. Print.Google Scholar
Clausewitz, Carl von. On War. Ed. and Trans. Michael Howard and Peter Paret. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1976. Print.10.1515/9781400837403CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colbert Report. Comedy Central. 4 Mar. 2009. Television.Google Scholar
Counterinsurgency: FM3-24. 15 Dec. 2006. United States Army Combined Arms Center, n.d. Web. 23 July 2009.Google Scholar
Davis, Tracy C. Stages of Emergency: Cold War Nuclear Civil Defense. Durham: Duke UP, 2007. Print.10.1215/9780822389637CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Landa, Manuel. War in the Age of Intelligent Machines. New York: Swerve, 1991. Print.Google Scholar
“DoD News Briefing: Secretary Rumsfeld and Gen. Myers.” 12 Feb. 2002. News Transcript. DefenseLINK. US Dept. of Defense, n.d. Web. 23 July 2009.Google Scholar
Durán, Fray Diego. The History of the Indies of New Spain. Trans. Heyden, Doris. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 1994. Print.Google Scholar
Filkins, Dexter, and Burns, John F. “Mock Iraqi Villages in Mojave Prepare Troops for Battle.” New York Times. New York Times, 1 May 2006. Web. 1 Apr. 2009.Google Scholar
Vittorio, Gallese. “The ‘Shared Manifold’ Hypothesis: From Mirror Neurons to Empathy.” Journal of Consciousness Studies 8.5-7 (2001): 33–50. Print.Google Scholar
Gonzales, Alberto R. “Memorandum for the President.” 25 Jan. 2002. Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror. By Mark Danner. New York: New York Rev. of Books, 2004. 83–87. Print.Google Scholar
Gray, Chris Hables. “‘There Will Be War!‘: Future War Fantasies and Militaristic Science Fiction in the 1980s.” Science Fiction Studies 21.3 (1994): 315–36. Print.Google Scholar
Sue, Halpern. “Virtual Iraq.” New Yorker 19 May 2008: 32–37. Print.Google Scholar
Halter, ed. From Sun Tzu to Xbox: War and Video Games. New York: Thunder's Mouth, 2006. Print.Google Scholar
Ross, Hassig. Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 1988. Print.Google Scholar
Andreas, Huyssen. Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2003. Print.Google Scholar
Jomini, Jomini Antoine Henri. The Art of War. Trans. Mendell, G. H. and Craighill, W. P. Westport: Greenwood, 1862. Print. West Point Military Lib.Google Scholar
Ivan, Klinec. “Strategic Thinking in the Information Age and the Art of Scenario Designing.” First Prague Workshop on Futures Studies Methodology CESES. Charles U, Prague. 16–18 Sept. 2004. Address.Google Scholar
Steven, Lukes. “Liberal Democratic Torture.” British Journal of Political Science 36.1 (2006): 1–16. Print.Google Scholar
Scott, Magelssen. “Rehearsing the ‘Warrior Ethos’: ‘Theatre Immersion’ and the Simulation of Theatres of War.” TDR: The Drama Review 53.1 (2009): 47–72. Print.Google Scholar
Motolinía, Fray Toribio. History of the Indians of New Spain. Ed. and Trans. Elizabeth Andros. Berkeley: Cortés Soc., 1950. Print.Google Scholar
Natasha, Myers. “Performing the Protean Fold.” Turkle 171–74.Google Scholar
News, NBC. Operation Iraqi Freedom: Twenty-Two Historic Days in Words and Pictures. Fwd. and DVD commentary by Tom Brokaw. Kansas City: Andrews, 2003. DVD, print.Google Scholar
“Scenario.” Merriam-Webster OnLine Search. Merriam-Webster, 2009. Web. 7 Apr. 2009.Google Scholar
“Scenario.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Aug. 2009. Web. 10 Sept. 2009.Google Scholar
Brett, Sokol. “Weekend at War.” New York Times 27 Feb. 2009, Escapes: D1. Print.Google Scholar
“So You Want to Become a Reenactor.” The Civil War Reenactors Home Page. Cwreenactors.com, 14 Nov. 2003. Web. 26 June 2009.Google Scholar
Sten, María. Vida y muerte del teatro náhuatl. Veracruz: Biblioteca U Veracruzana, 1982. Print.Google Scholar
Diana, Taylor. Disappearing Acts: Spectacles of Gender and Nationalism in Argentina's “Dirty War.” Durham: Duke UP, 1997. Print.Google Scholar
Diana, Taylor. “Double Blind: The Torture Case.” On the Case. Spec. issue of Critical Inquiry 33.4 (2007): 710–33. Print.Google Scholar
Testa, Bridget Mintz. “The Army's Training Weapon: Serious Games.” Workforce. Crain Communications, Jan. 2009. Web. 16 May 2009.Google Scholar
Sherry, Turkle. Simulation and Its Discontents. Cambridge: MIT P, 2009. Print.Google Scholar
Virtual Peace: Turning Swords to Ploughshares. Developed by Tim Lenoir. Virtual Peace, 2008. Web. 26 June 2009.Google Scholar