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Authors

Mike Dillon

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This essay explores how 24 represents torture as an encounter between the imagined nation of “America” and the stateless and nebulous characteristic of “terrorism.” Torturing of terror suspects became public knowledge following the Abu Ghraib scandal and reports of detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay Prison. This and other scandals of the Bush administration have interacted with the work of 24’s fictional Counter Terrorist Unit in complex ways. The show’s protagonist, Jack Bauer, can be seen as a source of a new model of discipline and national identity.

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