Screening Bosnia:
Geopolitics, Gender and Nationalism in Film and Television Images of the 1992-95 War
New book by Stephen Harper
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The Bosnian war of 1992-1995 was one of the most brutal conflicts to have erupted since the end of the Second World War. But although the war occurred in ‘Europe’s backyard’ and received significant media coverage in the West, relatively little scholarly attention has been devoted to cultural representations of the conflict. Stephen Harper analyses how the war has been depicted in global cinema and television over the past quarter of a century. Focusing on the representation of some of the war’s major themes, including humanitarian intervention, the roles of NATO and the UN, genocide, rape and ethnic cleansing, Harper explores the role of popular media culture in reflecting, reinforcing — and sometimes contesting — nationalist ideologies.
Reviews
“Screening Bosnia presents a trenchant analysis of how films and TV dramas have reproduced and endorsed a tendentious ideological version of the Bosnian war. Stephen Harper ably skewers the historical inaccuracies and Balkanist stereotyping employed by liberal filmmakers promoting liberal interventionist fantasies. Not only is this book a brilliant work of film criticism, it also challenges common-sense orthodoxies about past conflicts and current geopolitics.” – Philip Hammond, Professor of Media & Communications, London South Bank University, UK
