2021-03-12

Bookchapter: Nationalism, masculinities, and bodies

Published in: De Smet, Bram J, and Ihntaek Hwang. “Nationalism, masculinities, and bodies.” In Routledge Handbook of Feminist Peace Research, edited by Tarja Väyrynen, Swati Parashar, Élise Féron, and Catia C Confortini, 324–32, New York: Routledge, 2021.

Abstract: This chapter shows how, in feminist and related literature, nationalism, masculinity and body are related. In more conventional literature on nationalism, gender has been mostly absent. Feminists not only inserted gender into the field but also shed light over the embodiment of both masculinity and militarism. Feminists have challenged the view that the body is pre-political and showed how reproducing the community requires the disciplining of the body and its memories of social traumas. In drawing attention to the body, the chapter also points to the range of masculinities arising from nationalist struggles, and in particular militarised masculinities, considering the political consequences and human costs of ignoring them.