"Sit down and talk": Doctor Who and an imperfect peace myth.
The globalized age of the Anthropocene, a spacetime in which humans regularly come into contact with other human and non-human ways-of-life, creates an exigence for stories that encourage living together-in-difference, or peace myths. In "The Zygon Inversion," Doctor Who offers an imperfect peace my...
| Published in: | Communication Quarterly Vol. 70; no. 1; pp. 42 - 63 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Eastern Communication Association
Jan-Mar 2022
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=154955876&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 154955876 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 01463373 CQT jtl: Communication Quarterly issn: 01463373 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jan-Mar 2022 vid: 70 iid: 1 pid: 1121 pub: Eastern Communication Association artinfo: ui: 154955876 10.1080/01463373.2021.2016879 ppf: 42 ppct: 21 formats: tig: atl: "Sit down and talk": Doctor Who and an imperfect peace myth. aug: au: Rosenfeld, Cynthia su: Doctor Who (TV program) Peace Cultural identity Collective memory Peace movements Fortune Myth sug: subj: Peace Cultural identity Collective memory Peace movements Fortune Myth Doctor Who (TV program) keyword: Doctor WHO guilt-redemption cycle imperfect peace myth Doctor WHO guilt-redemption cycle imperfect peace myth ab: The globalized age of the Anthropocene, a spacetime in which humans regularly come into contact with other human and non-human ways-of-life, creates an exigence for stories that encourage living together-in-difference, or peace myths. In "The Zygon Inversion," Doctor Who offers an imperfect peace myth that saves two species from war. To illuminate this myth, this essay first discusses the significance of memory and myth for national and cultural identity and situates Doctor Who in a sociopolitical context. Next, I show how the Doctor's myth (1) reconceptualizes the metaphor of wargames from a game of strategy to one of luck, (2) invites a de-escalation of conflict through the Doctor's enargeic rendering of his own, pained guilt, and (3) remains problematically partial as peace is achieved through a retention of the status quo at the cost of Zygon ways-of-life. Finally, I discuss how Doctor Who contributes to theorizing peace myths. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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