Shell-Shocked a multimodal critical discourse analysis of photographed missile inscriptions

Abstract

This research dissertation examines photographed missile inscriptions (PMIs) using Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis. It addresses the semiotic choices realized in the language and photographic composition of PMIs, how they construct representations of war, what they foreground and omit about warfare, and their engagement with militaristic discourse. Findings reveal that PMIs justify military violence by interpellating constituents and othering opponents, foreground themes of historical grievance to legitimize warmaking, and embed structural repetitions in ritualistic practices that naturalize militarist ideology. In these ways, PMIs promote militarism while concealing the brutal realities of war, missile technologies, and military conscription, and they omit the death and profit inherent in warmaking. The study contributes primarily to the fields of martial epigraphy, war photography, political science and conflict studies.