The War In-Between: Indexing a Visual Culture of Survival

The War In-Between explores the ambiguities and contradictions that disrupt the assumed boundaries of battle zones, focusing on visual depictions of banal, routine, or inscrutable aspects of militarized violence. It argues that spaces of the in-between are broader and less visible than battlefields, and that struggles for survival arise out of the same conditions of structural violence. Visual artifacts such as photographs, video, data visualizations, fabric art, and craft projects provide different vantage points on the quotidian impacts of militarism. The book introduces three interrelated concepts to frame its attempt to stay in the moment of looking at visual cultures of survival: the concept of the war in-between, the concept of indexicality, and the concept of asymptotic analysis. It concludes that there is more to feel and engage in war images than just mangled bodies, collapsing buildings, and industrialized death.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 29 April 2024
Publisher: Fordham University Press

The War In-Between delves into the complexities and paradoxes that challenge the conventional understanding of battle zones, revealing the ambiguities and contradictions that permeate the fabric of suffering that unfolds around more spectacular injuries and deaths. While battlefields are more visible and well-defined, spaces of the in-between, which encompass a broader range of experiences, are often overlooked. Visual artifacts such as photographs, videos, data visualizations, fabric art, and craft projects provide unique perspectives on the quotidian impacts of militarism, shedding light on the banality of everyday violence for non-combatants and the daily struggles of soldiers living with physical and emotional trauma.

The book's central theme revolves around the concept of the war in-between, which captures the interstitial spaces of war where violence and survival coexist. It expands the concept of indexicality to examine how images of the in-between rely on a range of indexical traces to produce alternative visualities about survival and endurance. Additionally, the book introduces an asymptotic analysis to explore the value in getting close to the diverse experiences that comprise the war in-between, even if the horizon line of experience is always just out of reach.

By exploring the capaciousness of survival, The War In-Between challenges the notion that war images are limited to mangled bodies, collapsing buildings, and industrialized death. Instead, it offers an accounting of visualities that arise at the otherwise unthinkable junction of conflict and an. Through its exploration of the ambiguities and contradictions that disrupt the assumed boundaries of battle zones, The War In-Between contributes to a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the complexities of militarized violence and its impact on individuals and communities.

Weight: 410g
Dimension: 151 x 229 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781531507237