University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-2006 The shield of Achilles and the war on terror : Ekphrasis as critique. Christopher D. Erickson University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Erickson, Christopher D., "The shield of Achilles and the war on terror : Ekphrasis as critique." (2006). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 2409. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/2409 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. University of Massachusetts Amherst L I B R R This is an authorized facsimile, made from the microfilm master copy of the original dissertation or master thesis published by UMI. The bibliographic information for this thesis is contained in UMl's Dissertation Abstracts database, the only central source for accessing almost every doctoral dissertation accepted in North America since 1861. T T\/TT Dissertation Services FromiPro^vuest COMPANY 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1346 USA 800.521.0600 734.761.4700 web www.il.proquest.com Printed in 2006 by digital xerographic process on acid-tree paper THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES AND THE WAR ON TERROR: EKPHRASIS AS CRITIQUE A Dissertation Presented by CHRISTOPHER D. ERICKSON Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2006 Department of Political Science UMI Number: 3215770 Copyright 2006 by Erickson, Christopher D. All rights reserved. UMI<g) UMI Microform 3215770 Copyright 2006 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 © Copyright by Christopher D. Erickson 2006 All Rights Reserved THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES AND THE WAR ON TERROR: EKPHRASIS AS CRITIQUE A Dissertation Presented by CHRISTOPHER D. ERICKSON Approved as to style and content by: James Der Derian, Chair Roberto Alejandro, Member Briankle Chang, Member George Sulzner, Department Head Department of Political Science THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES AND THE WAR ON TERROR: EKPHRASIS AS CRITIQUE A Dissertation Presented by CHRISTOPHER D. ERICKSON Approved as to style and content by; Briankle Chang, Member Department of Political Science DEDICATION For Cindy, Kieren, and Aidan. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS of guidance of a number of individuals in a variety This project has benefited from the Briankle Chang to my committee members. settings. Thanks must first be extended area of semiotics and his unwaveringly provided assistance with his expertise in the of assistance with Plato, Homer and positive approach. Roberto Alejandro was reference to which my arguments Nietzsche, often providing a useful counterpoint in the role of representation and could be better refined. James Der Derian’s expertise in invaluable. Their respective areas of simulation in international politics was absolutely formulated herein. 1 was expertise complimented and strengthened the arguments thorugh lively discussions fortunate enough to have gained valuable feedback conference occasioned by my presentation of the second chapter of the dissertaion at a and at the New on Terrorism. Democray and Empire at Carelton University in Ottawa, Special thanks is England Political Science Association’s annual conference in Boston. gave also due to Dennis Kabush who served as an unofficial outside reader, and who outstanding intellectual and moral support. Of course, this project would not have been forbearance) possible were it not for the patience, encouragement, companionship (and of my wife, Cindy. V ABSTRACT THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES AND THE WAR ON TERROR: EKPHRASIS AS CRITIQUE MAY 2006 CHRISTOPHER D. ERICKSON, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA M.A., BOND UNIVERSITY Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMFCERST Directed by: Professor James Der Derian This dissertation is guided by two central questions. The first question is “Is the War on Terror inevitable?” By comparing the language used by President Bush in a speech given on September 20, 2001 to the language used by Homer in the Iliad, particularly his depiction of the shield of Achilles in Book 18, the War on Terror can be recast against a backdrop of mythology rather than fact. It is a tale we tell ourselves about the world, and its status as inevitable is far less convincing. The second guiding question is “How is the appearance of inevitability to be mitigated or resisted?” The second stage of the dissertation addresses the concept of mimesis (representation) as it appears in Plato’s Republic and in the work of Baudrillard. as means by which to resist the power of the shield. As critical tools, mimesis and simulacra extend the promise of critical distance, thereby allowing the "thus it is” claim to be understood as an illusion. However, mimesis and simulacra tend to maintain an underlying "thus it is” of their own. The thirds stage of the argument will challenge the '"thus it is” through a discussion of Odysseus and Nietzsche, both of whom teach that life is poiesis. The final stage will turn to the concept of ekphrasis, the verbal representation of a non-verbal representation, in order to develop it as a tool useful for critical theorists. Ekphrasis has VI power of mimetic representation and disrupting the advantage of both recognizing the 2001 conclude with an ekphrastic reading of the September 20, it. The dissertation will speech. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. THE GOD OF FIRE’S GIFT; THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES AND THE WAR ON TERROR 21 The 30 Second Iliad 23 The Shield of Achilles 24 The Arms of Agamemnon 26 Beauty, Hope and Fear 3 Sarpedon’s Body 36 The Shield of George W. Bush 40 Achilles and Priam: Setting aside the Shield 52 III. MIMESIS AS RESISTANCE: PLATO AND BAUDRILLARD ON THE SHORES OF ETHIOPIA 61 Plato 63 Shields and Rings: Plato Against the Poets 63 Plato As A Poet 79 Plato As A Bearer of the Shield 85 From Cratylus to Baudrillard 92 Baudrillard 94 The Shield as Simulacrum 94 The Spirit of Terrorism 105 “Hyperrealist Abjection” or The Shield of Baudrillard 112 Perseus, Plato, Baudrillard 1 16 IV. AFTER ACHILLES 119 Warnings Unheeded 120 Ajax 121 Neoptolemus 124 viii 134 Odysseus: Artfulness Above All Else 140 The Homeric Question 150 Nietzsche's Language 158 V. EKPHRASIS AS CRITIQUE 160 From Perseus to Paris 162 Krieger: The Still Mo(ve)ment of Ekphrasis 167 Mitchell: Ekphrastic Hope 172 Becker: Breaking the Illusion 179 "This is [Something Like] Civilzation’s Fight:” 179 The Shield of George W. Bush. Revisited APPENDICES 202 A. PRESIDENT BUSH’S ADDRESS TO A JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS 210 B. THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES 214 C. THE SHIELD OF AGAMEMNON BIBLIOGRAPHY 215 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION On September 1 1, 2001 two hijacked airliners loaded with fuel slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. Another hit the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania. On September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush stood before a joint session of Congress and pronounced a War on Terror. His insistence that “either you are with us or you are with the terrorists”' was one of the opening salvos in a rhetorical bombardment that has worked to confirm the presence of what Samuel Huntington has famously dubbed a “clash of civilizations.” This Huntingtonian theory has deeply influenced those in the Bush Administration and the neoconservative agenda it pursues. In the words of Emran Qureshi, the premise of this theory is that such a clash is not the product of particular historical circumstances that can change but that the essence of Islam as a religion is antipathetic to the fundamental core values of the West; that Islam is inherently violent in nature; and that, therefore, violent acts against the West are inevitable and are provoked not by any particular grievances or set of circumstances but by the very existence of Western civilization.^ ' George W Bush, Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People, 20 September, 2001 (2001 [cited December 15 2004]); available from http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/print/20010920-8.htm., 30. The full text of the speech is given in Appendix A. All further references will be to paragraph number. ^ Samuel P. Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations," Foreign Affairs 72, no. 3 (1993). ^ Emran Qureshi and Martin A. Sells, "Introduction," in The NeM' Crusades: Constructing the Muslim Enemy, ed. Emran Qureshi and Martin A. Sells (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), p.2. Qureshi is less than charitable in his reading 1 first question is “Is the This dissertation is guided by two central questions. The it been presented as such."^ War on Terror inevitable?’" There can be little doubt that has the warring parties Even a passing familiarity with the rhetorical pronouncements of looking more makes this abundantly clear. An answer to this question will begin by follow will show that closely at the speech of September 20, 2001. The argument to to the despite claims to the contrary, the War on Ten'or is not inevitable. This leads and his interpretation does overstate Huntington's position. In the 1993 article, Huntington says: differences among civilizations are not only real; they are basic. Civilizations are differentiated Ifom each other by history, language, culture, tradition and, most important, religion. The people of different civilizations have different views on the relations between God and man, the individual and the group, the citizen and the state, parents and children, husband and wife, as well as differing views of the relative importance of rights and responsibilities, liberty and authority, equality and hierarchy.