Affective War: Wounded Bodies as Political Technologies

Abstract

This article argues that wounded military bodies are affective technologies in the production of supportive publics in war. It builds on Elaine Scarry’s concept of substantiation, suggesting that the damaged or altered body functions in war as a vehicle for the making material of immaterial beliefs, values and ideas. Scarry’s focus on the affective force of the wounded body is elaborated and pushed further, by asserting that the concept of substantiation needs to be supplemented by an analysis of the work that wounded bodies do as political technologies. These arguments are mobilised through two examples of the public staging of wounded military bodies in the United Kingdom during and after recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These examples provide an analysis of the political processes of substantiation: the specific mechanisms through which wounded bodies are rendered visible and through which their affective capacities to compel and grip are mediated.