Terrorism, Taboo, and Discursive Resistance: The Agonistic Potential of the Terrorism Novel

Abstract

More than a decade of the war on terror has increased levels of direct and structural violence and strengthened the forces of political oppression across the globe. Within this historical material context, as well as the intellectual context of the "narrative turn" and the wider "cultural turn" currently underway in International Relations, this article explores the ways in which the terrorism novel might act as a mode of discursive resistance or literary resistance to these (oppressive) forms of power, as a site of emancipatory agonistic politics, and as a social scientific method of analysis. Among possible forms of discursive resistance, the novel-as a narrative mode-has genuine potential due to its affective as opposed to confrontational form, its engagement with the emotional aspects of international politics, its lack of conventional boundaries, and its potential reach. However, to date, the terrorism novel has not realized its potential as a mode of resistance, but has instead tended to reinforce the counterterrorism truth regime by reinforcing and maintaining the modern terrorism taboo. In this respect, the publication of Confessions of a Terrorist: A Novel (Jackson 2014) represents something of a watershed, as it is one of the first sympathetic fictional depictions of a terrorist and the first to give primary voice to the perspective of the terrorist. Allowing the terrorist to speak not only acts to resist and undermine the terrorism taboo and generate empathetic projection, but potentially also creates an agonistic moment in which the violent subaltern can speak on an equal footing directly to the counterterrorist-and by extension, to the reader. The article concludes by reflecting on the potential of the novel as a site of both resistance and agonistic encounter and the challenges of employing literary resistance to domination.There is no question that more than a decade of the global war on terror has demonstrably increased levels of direct and structural violence and enabled state (and in some cases, nonstate) oppression and domination across the globe. 2

Costly encounters of the empathic kind: a typology

“…This link between micro- and macro-politics is implicit in Saurette’s writings which chart the relationship between perceptions of humiliation as a central emotional force of an individual – former President George W. Bush – to humiliation as a structuring dynamic of post-9/11 global politics. Similar arguments with regards to the political status of individually experienced emotions – notably humiliation, betrayal, and their often violent consequences – have been made by, among others, Jackson (2015) and Fattah and Fierke (2009). Their respective writings on the ‘war on terror’ demonstrate the way in which master narratives (and collective emotional orientations therein) of the self and other relationship influence and shape the process of identity formation, the personal and political decisions of ‘ordinary’ people and their leaders, and their propensity for empathy towards out-groups.…”

“…The ways in which the socio-psychological infrastructure in Israel and Palestine is strengthened are considerable, including extensive sharing of the beliefs and accompanying emotions widely held by members of society (individuals are socialized with these from an early age); wide and active application of their daily use in individuals’ lives through public discourse, social media, and mass communication, through oral history, through national-religious ceremonies, commemoration, rituals, and symbols; a widespread presence in cultural media, and their frequent appearance in educational materials (Bar-Tal 1998; Bar-On 2001; Bar-Tal 2007, 1445; Pappe 2010; Caspi and Rubenstein 2012; Peled-Elhanan 2012). Extending this line of argument in another context, the socio-psychological infrastructure which shapes the dominant terrorism discourse has similarly been maintained by ‘a large assortment of social institutions (the media, academia, security agencies, legal entities, political actors, and so on), an ever-growing set of material and discursive practices of security and control … and a vast array of cultural productions (films, novels, academic outputs, newspaper articles, official reports, laws, regulations, jokes, Web sites, comics, art, theater, and so on)’ (Jackson 2015, 2). Where the socio-psychological infrastructure supporting a conflict narrative has been successfully institutionalized, the cost of empathy with members of the out-group is likely to be higher (and the rewards for in-group loyalty correspondingly significant).…”

“…The more effective the socio-psychological infrastructure is, the more challenging it is for individuals who seek to identify with and voice alternative narratives. As Jackson highlights in his discussion of terrorism mythography, when faced with ‘“the dilemma that the serious novelist shares with the ethnographer – the need to empathize with one’s subject in order to be true to their tale”, the terrorism novelist is bound to conform to the dictates of the [contemporary cultural and political] taboo and avoid at all costs “talking to terrorists’’’ (2015, 8). Moreover, Sonnenschein noted in a further illustration of socio-psychological control mechanisms that research has shown that ‘when there is a peak in the conflict our [Israeli] journalists forget their professional identity and stick to their national identity.…”

“…– it nonetheless runs counter to an objective or positivist epistemology that has long dominated international relations and political science. Questioning the authority of the speaking or writing academic subject, Jackson argues that ‘the professional academic voice is strictly limited in its capacity to convey some realities, some knowledge, some voices’ (Jackson 2015, 13; Dauphinee 2010). Rejecting a clear divide between affective and cognitive modes of empathy also serves to challenge the rationalist paradigm which pre-determines what forms of ‘knowing’ are possible.…”

“… 15 Jackson also recognizes the dissonance caused by empathy through fiction: ‘I wanted the affective qualities of the narrative to challenge the reader to re-evaluate and rethink their attitudes and beliefs about the motives of a terrorist and the nature of terrorism, in large part by humanizing the “terrorist” and generating a kind of dissonance – causing empathy with his life story, grievances, and aims (if not his methods)’ (2015, 14, emphasis added).…”