THE RHETORIC OF WAR IN WONGAR’S DRAMA BALANG-AN VILLAGE AND COETZEE’S THE VIETNAM PROJECT

Abstract

The paper deals with the phenomenon of war in the era of contemporary technologies where war is simultaneously waged on the following fronts: word, image, scene, snapshot and simulation, with displaced battlefield that breaches the conventions of the time. The works by B. Wongar and J. M. Coetzee approach the problematic of Vietnam war employing similar standpoints, techniques, styles and discourse, drawing special attention to the media manipulating the information flow, to the importance of war photography propaganda and the act of postmodernizing war, the nature of which is transformed into weaponry and ultimate simulation in which it is hard to reach the truth. The Vietnam issue will be explored in the context of wars taking place in the centuries to come, yet also the ones still going on, since the issues of democratic imperialism are always raised anew.