A plaguing militainment: Ideology, metaphor, and interpellation in THQ's "Homefront"

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.

Date of Award	2012
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	Eastern Illinois University
Supervisor	Marita Gronnvoll (Supervisor)