Date of Award

Spring 2012

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

English and Cultural Studies

Supervisor

Susan Searls Giroux

Co-Supervisor

Daniel Coleman

Language

English

Committee Member

Lorraine York

Abstract

This dissertation maps the militarization of Canadian culture under the War on Terror. The first section examines the rise of everyday life militarizing cultural practices such as the Yellow Ribbon campaign to Support the Troops, Red Fridays, and the Highway of Heroes. The second section takes up militarizing cultural texts: the most recent wave of Canadian Forces recruiting advertisements, the CBC radio play Afghanada, and Paul Gross’s 2008 film Passchendaele. Across these diverse sites of analysis I argue that it is precisely through the mobilization of the previous national myths of multiculturalism, peacekeeping and tolerance that the contrary cultural politics of the new militarism coheres.

McMaster University Library