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"The spirit of America lives here": US pro-wrestling and the post-9/11 "War on Terror"

Nevitt, Lucy

Authors

Lucy Nevitt



Abstract

This article argues that the ideological mechanisms and norms used to render the War on Terror both familiar and seemingly inevitable to a wide public have long been present in popular American culture in the form of professional wrestling. The professional wrestling performances of American company WWE attract an enormous global audience of committed followers. This article considers pro-wrestling as an example of what Jon McKenzie calls a regime of normative force, identifying similarities in structure, imagery and rhetoric between a range of WWE performances and the US-led War on Terror. The article analyses the familiar codes of pro-wrestling performance in the contexts of propaganda and ideological reaffirmation. The analysis includes the considerations of performer/spectator relationship, the slippage between fiction and reality, the centrality and inevitability of unending combat and the construction of foreignness in opposition to a paradigmatic America. Through a range of examples of post-9/11 WWE performances, this article will draw out connections between the ongoing state of combat entertainment and the popular US preparedness for an ongoing state of war.

Citation

Nevitt, L. (2011). "The spirit of America lives here": US pro-wrestling and the post-9/11 "War on Terror". Journal of War and Culture Studies, 3(3), 319-334. https://doi.org/10.1386/jwcs.3.3.319_1

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jan 1, 2011
Journal Journal of War and Culture Studies
Print ISSN 1752-6272
Publisher Taylor & Francis
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 3
Issue 3
Pages 319-334
DOI https://doi.org/10.1386/jwcs.3.3.319_1
Keywords war on terror, popular entertainment, ideology, pectatorship, performance, professional wrestling
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/966373
Publisher URL http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Article,id=10377/
Additional Information Additional Information : Dr Nevitt no longer works for the University of the West of England. If you wish to contact her in connection with this research please email eprints@uwe.ac.uk and we will forward your request on to her.


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