Perspective and Perception:
Terrorism Then and Now in Conrad, Chesterton, Hamid and Shamsie.

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to develop a perspectival and perceptional approach to terrorism through its literary representations. The understanding of terrorism is characterised by a unidirectional perspective that prevents inclusive and varied interpretation of the intricacies of terrorism. In the aim of achieving the intention of this study, four primary texts have been selected: The Secret Agent: Simple Tale (1907), The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare (1908), The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) and Home Fire (2017). The textual analysis of the novels is based on different aspects of perspective and perception that include pictorial metaphors structured around disguise, deceit and the changing insights that these suggest, as a way of mirroring the existing multidimensional aspect of terrorism. Sound as in narrative points of view, being an element that contributes to the formation of perception, is another analytical apparatus that serves to uncover the multifaceted character of terrorism. The primary texts, although not covering the period of colonial and postcolonial period, pave the way for the wider purpose of this study. They cover both representations of anarchist and contemporary violence. They are geographically diverse, which permits the exploration of the influence of geopolitics on the perception of terrorism. Moreover, the research analyses the representation of the terrorist from different contexts in the aim of revealing the different perceptions that can be associated with the choice of terrorism. This research aims at exploring the literary representation of all voices existing within terrorism but are absent from the mainstream terrorism discourse and perspective. It creates a literary grey space outside the unidirectional formulation of terrorism, that paints the images, the sounds and silence within terrorism to mimic the kaleidoscope effect of perspectives and perceptions through Conrad, Chesterton, Hamid and Shamsie.