Abstract

Bodies of Terror/Terrorizing Bodies is an examination of the biopolitical manifestations of the global military and security operations that have taken place under the conditions set forth by the War on Terror. By tracing the discursive movements that place the body at the locus of the ongoing War on Terror, this project aims to uncover the alignment of several power operations directed at the flesh of those individuals at the center of, and on the peripheries of, this war. Through a reading of several historical sites and present day occurrences from within the discourse of the War on Terror, including images available from popular culture, the torture photographs from Abu Ghraib, and political arguments presented within the popular press, this thesis aims to answer four simple questions. Firstly, how did the body become the central site of power operations within the War on Terror? Secondly, to what extent are the biopolitics of the War on Terror related to other discourses of the body, and even more particularly, how are dominant notions of masculine, white heterosexuality revealed within the War on Terror? Thirdly, what are the implications of the actualization of these biopolitics on the lives of individuals who may, or may not be, the targets of the War on Terror? And finally, what avenues for resistance, and what new assemblages, are opened up to bodies and individuals through the corporeal discourse of the War on Terror?