ABSTRACT

This chapter interweaves bodily memory and emotions contextualized by the discourse of the local war, military actions and interactions. It focuses on the bodily and emotional experience of Russian male members of the army aged 44 to 49 years who participated in the war in Afghanistan. An existing body is viewed as an expressive unity of the senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, and in its activity the body intentionally orients to others, thus the living body becomes a subject of perception and at the same time an object of perceiving others. The male body becomes a natural surface that keeps and reflects symbolic senses acquired during life. The emotionality of male members of the army is structured by the opposition of death and life as well as their bodily memory. The male members of the army exercise bodily and emotional self-restriction and self-normalization under the invisible control of the army, gender and community.