The Figure of the Terrorist in Literature and Visual Culture

Published by Edinburgh University Press 2023

The Figure of the Terrorist in Literature and Visual Culture

Edited by: Maria Flood and Michael Frank

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474497602

Overview
Contents

About this book

Contains thirteen original essays and an expansive introduction, including contributions by some of the foremost scholars in the field

Goes beyond the US-centrism of post-9/11 discourse and covers a broad geographical scope, including India, Sri Lanka, Burma, the UK, France, and Germany
Offers up-to-date discussions of key films and texts, as well as pioneering analyses of works that have been largely overlooked in scholarship
Brings together research from multiple disciplinary perspectives, including literary criticism, film and television studies, cultural anthropology, critical terrorism studies, postcolonial studies, and gender studies

The contemporary preoccupation with terrorism is marked by a curious paradox: whereas the topic has been ubiquitous in public discourse since the late twentieth century, the voices of terrorists themselves are usually silenced. Is the terrorist “the quintessential proscribed or tabooed figure of our times”, as cultural anthropologists Joseba Zulaika and William A. Douglass have suggested? The present volume is the first to approach the tabooing of terrorists from an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective. Covering a broad geographical scope, it explores how different media forms (such as novels, fiction and non-fiction films, or comic books) frame and make sense of the figure of the terrorist: do they reinforce the terrorism taboo, or do they find ways of circumventing it? Each contribution asks how factors such as ideological agenda, religious identity, ethnicity, and gender impact the way the perpetrators of political violence are conceived in different historical moments and cultural contexts.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
List of Figures Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Notes on Contributors Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
1. Introduction: The Figure of the Terrorist in Literature and Visual Culture Maria Flood and Michael C. Frank Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART ONE HISTORICISING THE FIGURE OF THE TERRORIST: CROSS-MEDIA PERSPECTIVES
2. The Psychology of Post-War Revolutionary Terrorism in Muriel Spark’s The Only Problem and Doris Lessing’s The Good Terrorist Beatriz Lopez Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
3. Sympathy for the Devil? The Changing Face of the IRA in American Superhero Comics Shane Walshe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
4. Terrorists and Hooligans: Re-politicising a De-politicised Figure in Contemporary Representations of British Football Culture Cyprian Piskurek Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
5. Screening Railway Terrorists: Light Modernity, Invisible Threats and the Aesthetics of Concealment in The 15:17 to Paris and Bodyguard Johannes Riquet Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
6. ‘Nothing Terroristic About Him’: The Figure of the Terrorist in Karan Mahajan’s The Association of Small Bombs Peter C. Herman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
PART TWO GENDER, IDENTITY AND TERRORISM
7. Militancy, Maternity and Masquerade in Santosh Sivan’s The Terrorist Rajeswari Mohan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
8. The Female Counter-Strike: Terrorising Patriarchy in Hindi Cinema Harald Pittel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
9. Contrasting Terrorist Figures: Far-Right Extremists and Jihadists in Contemporary French Cinema Sarah Davison Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
10. ‘I Was a Big Girl. I Could Pack My Bags and Leave’: ISIS and Female Emancipation in Tabish Khair’s Just Another Jihadi Jane Zaynab Seedat Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
PART THREE INTIMATE ENEMIES: FEELING FOR THE TERRORIST?
11. Circumventing the Condemnation Imperative: The Figure of the Female Suicide Bomber in Akin and El Akkad Tim Gauthier Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
12. Discomfort and Documentary Film: The Figure of the White Extremist in Deeyah Khan’s White Right Maria Flood Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
13. Intimate Conflicts: Rebels, Heroes and Disfigured Terrorists in Burmese Anglophone Literature Pavan Kumar Malreddy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
Afterword Richard Jackson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 352
Illustrations
- Other: 19 B/W illustrations 19 B&W images
Keywords: Film, Media & Cultural Studies

eBook

Published: June 9, 2023
ISBN: 9781474497602