The Wild Man and the Shepherd. Hegemonic Masculinities and the Definitions of Trauma in The Hurt Locker (2008) and American Sniper (2014)

Year 2019, Issue: 11, 72 - 96, 15.05.2019

Sebastian Fitz-klausner

Abstract

Although one could not escape the ubiquitous comparisons to Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker while reading reviews for Clint Eastwood’s latest war movie (American Sniper), the impressions both films leave are quite different. Despite the apparent similarities regarding protagonists, settings and narrative structure (we follow a soldier of a special unit making tours in Iraq while coping with PTSD), the differences regarding box office results and the films’ interpretations are undeniable. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the conception of trauma. While real-life Chris Kyle was a public, yet polarizing figure of war-related experiences and an example of how to deal with and conquer (!) one’s own trauma to regain a “normal” life according to hegemonic ideals of US-masculinity, his counterpart in The Hurt Locker (William James) was not just perceived to be an adrenaline junkie, but was actually blamed to produce a disrespectful image of professional soldiers and their masculinities. In the few cases James’ trauma is accepted, his PTSD is reduced to a small number of scenes (e.g. scenes at home and in the supermarket) while ignoring his traumatic disposition (death drive, latency, compulsive repetition) or interpreting it as mere thrill-seeking behaviour, thereby constructing a narrative of “cold” masculinity around him. In sharp contrast, Eastwood links Kyle’s trauma to positive attributes (especially the (fatal) wish to protect his family (represented by his comrades)) and constructs his narrative in the vein of a (successful) revenge story, thereby establishing a legitimized form of trauma and a gender appropriate reaction to it. Considering both the nature of trauma as a highly biased and political construction favouring some experiences over others and the problematic nature of the traumatic male body in the context of hegemonic masculinity, the question of legitimized forms of trauma and one’s reaction according to gender identities becomes quite relevant. Therefore, to address the complex relationship between gendered codes, the legitimate understanding and reading of trauma and its portrayal in trauma discourse, this paper attempts a culturally and historically contextualized reading of The Hurt Locker and American Sniper to analyze concepts of legitimate and illegitimate trauma in contemporary USA, their narrative constructions, and their interconnections with hegemonic masculinity.

Keywords

PTSD, trauma theory, hegemonic masculinities, Iraq War cinema, curative time

Vahşi Adam ve Çoban: The Hurt Locker (2008) ve American Sniper (2014) Filmlerinde Hegemonik Erkeklikler ve Travmanın Tanımları

Abstract

Her ne kadar Clint Eastwood’un son savaş filmi America Sniper’ı izleyenler film hakkındaki yorumları okurken Kathryn Bigelow’un The Hurt Locker’ı ile ilgili yapılan kıyaslamalardan kaçamasa da, her iki filmin de bıraktığı izlenimler birbirinden oldukça farklıdır. Kahramanlar, mekân/zaman ve anlatı yapısıyla ilgili belirgin benzerliklere rağmen (Irak'ta operasyon yapan özel bir birlikte görevli ve aynı zamanda TSSB ile başa çıkmaya çalışan bir askeri takip ediyoruz), gişe sonuçları ve film yorumları arasındaki farklar inkâr edilemez ölçüdedir, ve bahsi geçen farklılıklar en belirgin halleriyle travma olgusunda ortaya çıkmaktadır. Filme kaynaklık etmiş gerçek hayat hikayesindeki Chris Kyle, savaşla ilgili deneyimlere dair kamuya mal olmuş olsa da, kutuplaştırıcı bir figür haline gelmiş ve Amerikan erkekliğinin hegemonik ideallerine göre “normal” bir yaşamı yeniden elde etmek için kişinin kendi travmasını nasıl ele alacağına ve fethedeceğine (!) bir örnek iken, The Hurt Locker'daki meslektaşı (William James) sadece bir adrenalin bağımlısı olarak algılanmakla kalmaz, aynı zamanda profesyonel askerlerin ve erkekliklerinin hoşgörüden yoksun bir imgesini üretmekle suçlanır. James’in travması yalnızca istisnai durumlarda kabul görür ve TSSB’si travmatik eğilimi (ölüm dürtüsü, edimsizliği , zoraki tekrarlar) göz ardı edilerek yahut sadece heyecan olarak yorumlanarak oldukça az sayıda sahneye (örneğin evde ve süpermarketteki sahnelere) indirgenir ve böylece etrafındaki “soğuk” erkekliğin bir anlatısını inşa eder. Tam aksine, Eastwood, Kyle’ın travmasını olumlu özelliklere bağlar [özellikle (silah arkadaşları tarafından temsil edilen) ailesini koruma isteği] ve anlatısını (başarılı) bir intikam hikayesi şeklinde inşa eder, böylece meşrulaştırılmış bir travma biçimi ve buna uygun bir toplumsal cinsiyet tepkisi oluşturur. Meşrulaştırılmış travma biçimleri ve kişilerin toplumsal cinsiyet kimliğine verdikleri tepki sorunsalı, hem travmanın doğası hem de diğer bireylerle paylaşılan deneyimleri destekleyen çok taraflı bir politik yapı olarak, travmatik erkek bedeninin hegemonik erkeklik bağlamında problemli doğasını düşünmek açısından oldukça anlamlı hale gelmektedir. Bu nedenle, cinsiyetlendirilmiş kodlar arasındaki karmaşık ilişkiyi ele almak, travmanın resmi algısını ve okumasını ve travma söylemi içerisindeki tasvirine dikkat çekmek adına, bu makale günümüz Amerikasında meşru ve meşru olmayan travma kavramlarını, anlatı yapılarını ve hegemonik erkeklik ile olan bağlantılarını analiz etmek amacı ile The Hurt Locker ve American Sniper’in kültürel ve tarihsel olarak bağlamsal bir okumasını ortaya koymayı amaçlamaktadır.

Keywords

TSSB, travma teorisi, hegemonik erkeklikler, Irak savaşı filmleri, iyileştirici zaman

References

• Barker, M. (2011a). ’America Hurting’: Making Movies About Iraq. In P. Hammond (Ed.), Screens of Terror: Representations of war and terrorism in film and television since 9/11 (pp. 37-50). Bury St. Edmonds: Arima Publishing.
• Barker, M. (2011b). A ‘Toxic Genre’: The Iraq War Films. New York: Pluto Press.
• Bigelow, K. Interview with N. Dawson (2013). Time’s Up. In P. Keough (Ed.), Kathryn Bigelow: Interviews (pp. 142-149). Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi.
• Bigelow, K. Interview with G. Smith (2013). Momentum and Design: Kathryn Bigelow Interviewed. In P. Keough (Ed.), Kathryn Bigelow: Interviews (pp. 73-90). Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi.
• Butler, J. (1992). Contingent Foundations: Feminism and the Question of ‘Postmodernism’. In J. Butler & J. W. Scott (Eds.), Feminists theorize the Political (pp. 3-21). New York, NY: Routledge.
• Caruth, C. (1995). Introduction. In C. Caruth (Ed.), Trauma: Explorations in Memory (pp. 3-12). Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press.
• Craps, S. (2014). Beyond Eurocentrism: Trauma theory in the global age. In G. Buelens, S. Durrant, & R. Eaglestone (Eds.), The Future of Trauma Theory: Contemporary Literary and Cultural Criticism (pp. 45-62). London: Routledge.
• Dyer, R. (2008). White. (1st publ., repr.). London: Routledge.
• Eaglestone, R. (2014). Knowledge, ‘afterwardness’ and the future of trauma theory. In G. Buelens, S. Durrant, & R. Eaglestone (Eds.), The Future of Trauma Theory: Contemporary Literary and Cultural Criticism (pp. 11-21). London: Routledge.
• Farrell, K. (1998). Post-Traumatic Culture: Injury and Interpretations in the Nineties. Baltimore, MD, London: The John Hopkins University Press.
• Foucault, M. (1981). The Order of Discourse (I. McLeod, Trans.). In R. Young (Ed.), Untying the Text: A Post-Structuralist Reader (pp. 51-78). Boston, MA, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• Freud, S. (2000). Jenseits des Lustprinzips [Beyond the Pleasure Principle]. In A. Mitscherlich, A. Richards, & J. Strachey (Eds.), Studienausgabe. Vol. 3. Psychologie des Unbewußten (pp. 213-227). Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag.
• Gilbert, C. J. (2014). Standing Up to Combat Trauma. Text and Performance Quarterly, 34, 144-163. doi:10.1080/10462937.2014.885558.
• Goldman, M. (2009). Madness, Masculinity, and Magic in Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business: A Tale of Hysteria: or, ‘the Suffocation of the Mother.’ University of Toronto Quarterly, 78, 991-999. doi:10.1353.
• Hoit, K. (2010, April 6). The Hurt Locker Doesn't Get This Vet's Vote. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-hoit/the-hurt-locker-doesnt-ge_b_449043.html.
• Kafer, A. (2013). Feminist, Queer, Crip. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
• Kaplan, E. A., & Wang, B. (2004). Introduction: From Traumatic Paralysis to the Force Field of Modernity. In E. A. Kaplan & B. Wang (Eds.), Trauma and Cinema: Cross-Cultural Explorations (pp. 1-22). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
• King, C. S. (2012). Washed in Blood: Male Sacrifice, Trauma, and the Cinema. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
• Koch, L. 2012. ‘He is a wild man!‘: Traumafigurationen in Kathryn Bigelows The Hurt Locker (2008) [‘He is a wild man!‘: Traumafigurations in Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt
• Locker (2008).] In J. B. Köhne (Ed.), Trauma und Film. Inszenierungen eines Nicht-Repräsentierbaren (pp. 126-152). Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos.
• Krewani, A. 2011a. Der Krieg im Irak und seine Bilder [The war in Iraq and its images]. Augenblick. Marburger Hefte zur Medienwissenschaft, 48/49, 160-177.
• Krewani, Angela. 2011b. Satelliten, Medien, Krieg: Zur Geschichte zeitgenössischer Kriegsbilder [Satellites, media, war: Regarding the history of contemporary war imagery]. In C. Gansel & H. Kaulen (Eds.), Kriegsdiskurse in Literatur und Medien nach 1989 (pp. 323-338). Göttingen: V&R Unipress.
• Laub, D. (1992). Bearing Witness, or the Vicissitude of Listening. In: S. Felman & D. Laub (Eds.), Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History (pp. 57-74). New York, NY: Routledge.
• Luckhurst, R. (2008). The Trauma Question. London: Routledge.
• Martinetz, A. (2012). Filmdramaturgie und Traumaforschung: Eine Betrachtung zweier parallel entstandener Disziplinen [Film dramaturgy and trauma research: An inspection of two disciplines formed at the same time]. In J. B. Köhne (Ed.), Trauma und Film: Inszenierungen eines Nicht-Repräsentierbaren (pp. 56-78). Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos.
• Maseda, R., & Dulin, P. L. (2012). From Weakling to Wounded Warriors: The Changing Portrayal of War-related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in American Cinema.“ 49th Parallel, 30, 1-32. Retrieved from https://fortyninthparalleljournal.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/3-masedadulin-from-weaklings.pdf.
• McDonald, N. (2015). Even-Handed in Iraq. Quadrant Magazine, 59, 99-100. Retrieved from https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2015/03/even-handed-iraq/.
• Morag, R. (2009). Defeated Masculinity: Post-Traumatic Cinema in the Aftermath of War. Brussels: Peter Lang.
• Neale, S. (1994). Prologue: Masculinity as spectacle: Reflections on Men and Mainstream Cinema. In S. Cohan & I. R. Hark (Eds.), Screening the Male. Exploring Masculinities in Hollywood Cinema (2nd ed.) (pp. 9-22). London: Routledge.
• Nochimson, M. P. (2010, February 24). Kathryn Bigelow: Feminist pioneer or tough guy in drag? Salon. Retrieved from http://www.salon.com/2010/2/24/bigelow_3/.
• Shay, J. (2003). Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character (1st Scribner trade paperback ed.). New York: Scribner.
• Slotkin, R. (1974). Regeneration through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600-1860 (1st paperback ed.). Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
• Stokes, M. (2015). Always Loyal. Berlin: Bruno Gmünder.
• Straw, M. (2011). Ethical Encounters and Passive Spectators: Looking at Hollywood’s War on Terror. In P. Hammond (Ed.), Screens of Terror: Representations of war and terrorism in film and television since 9/11 (pp. 51-69). Bury St. Edmonds: Arima Publishing.
• Väyrynen, T. (2013). Keeping the trauma of war open in the male body: Resisting the hegemonic forms of masculinity and national identity in visual arts. Journal of Gender Studies, 22, 137-151. doi:10.1080/09589236.2012.745686.
• Westwell, G. (2011). In Country: Mapping the Iraq War in Recent Hollywood Combat Movies. In P. Hammond (Ed.), Screens of Terror: Representations of war and terrorism in film and television since 9/11 (pp. 19-35). Bury St. Edmonds: Arima Publishing.
• Žižek, S. (2010). Green Berets with a Human Face [Blogpost]. LRB Blog. Retrieved from http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2010/03/23/slavoj-zizek/green-berets-with-a-human-face/.