Graduate Program
Communication Studies
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Semester of Degree Completion
2012
Thesis Director
Marita Gronnvall
Thesis Committee Member
Richard G. Jones, Jr.
Thesis Committee Member
A. J. Walsh
Abstract
Roger Stahl's book Militainment, Inc. has set the standard for studying the convergence of military culture and popular entertainment-otherwise known as militainment. This concept is easily discernible for rhetorical critics studying discursive texts in the late twentieth century, particularly after the start of the war on terror. This project examines a militainment text, the first-person shooter videogame Homefront. Produced by design company THQ and developed by Kaos studios, this game foreshadows the future of the United States should Kim Jong-Il's son succeed in unifying the divided peninsula and the American superpower crumble. After reviewing relevant literature and outlining three important questions, the analysis explores avenues of the text in two chapters using multiple rhetorical theories and related concepts: Louis Althusser's interpellation, Kenneth Burke's identification, Edwin Black's second persona, and the rhetorical construction of an evil enemy through the metaphor-lens of plague. After the analysis, six implications of the project are discussed with emphasis on what Homefront, and discourses like it, foreshadow for American political discourse. This project concludes by offering potential avenues for future rhetorical scholarship, and prospective interventions that are necessary by citizen, scholars, and activists to circumvent the continuing proliferation and production of non-critical videogame texts.
Recommended Citation
Hughes, Brendan G.A., "A plaguing militainment: Ideology, metaphor, and interpellation in THQ's "Homefront"" (2012). Masters Theses. 762.
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/762
