Teach phenomenology the bomb: Starship Troopers, the technologized body, and humanitarian warfare

Leonard, P ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4809-1944, 2005. Teach phenomenology the bomb: Starship Troopers, the technologized body, and humanitarian warfare. European Journal of American Culture, 25 (1), pp. 31-46. ISSN 1466-0407

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Abstract

Paul Verhoeven's SF films are often concerned with how the future body will be reshaped as a technological device. Starship Troopers strangely departs from Verhoeven's own work, other SF films, and current directions in cultural theory by seeing the future body as one that is more organic than mechanical. Drawing upon and challenging ideas developed by Paul Virilio, this article argues that Starship Troopers' departure from the notion of the 'post-human' mechanized body needs to be understood not as a nostalgic reassertion of de-technologized subjectivity. Rather, Verhoeven's film sees the idea of the pure body as a dangerous anachronism. And, this article further argues, Starship Troopers suggests that narratives of human salvation - such as those that arose during Nato's interventions in the Balkans - often conceal an appetite for territorial conquest.

Item Type:	Journal article
Alternative Title:	Teach phenomenology the bomb: Starship Troopers' ambivalent visions
Publication Title:	European Journal of American Culture
Creators:	Leonard, P.
Publisher:	Intellect
Date:	2005
Volume:	25
Number:	1
ISSN:	1466-0407
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1386/ejac.25.1.31/1 DOI
Rights:	© Intellect Ltd.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Arts and Humanities
Record created by:	EPrints Services
Date Added:	09 Oct 2015 09:54
Last Modified:	09 Jun 2017 13:13
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/4677

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