Torture, Terror, and Affect in Post 9/11 Literature and Culture

Abstract

This thesis analyses representations of torture post 9/11 with a focus on the affective climate of the period after the terror strikes to show how it shaped the justifications for torture. The arguments presented are divided into 'Part 1 Torture, Terror and the Ticking Bomb' which explores the post 9/11 political context in relation to affect and the ethics of representing pain and Part II 'Pleasure, Power and the Wounded Body' which examines the role of literary novels in depicting torture. The work creates a dialogue between texts such as the inter-departmental memos on torture exchanged between the United States Department of Justice and the CIA, George W Bush’s speeches in the aftermath of the attacks, examples of common pro-torture justifications, popular cultural representations of torture and interrogation tactics, and literary texts. The analysis reveals that the common approach of employing either a utilitarian or deontological framework for debating torture underestimates the significance of emotion. Drawing together Elaine Scarry's influential work, The Body in Pain (1985) and Sara Ahmed's analysis of affect in the Cultural Politics of Emotion (2004), the thesis argues that the rationale for torture is shaped by emotions. Using this theoretical framework, the study examines representations of torture in Percival Everett's bizarre and experimental novel The Water Cure (2007), Salman Rushdie's strange and fanciful Shalimar the Clown (2005) and Nadeem Aslam's sombre and poetic The Wasted Vigil (2008). In unique and dissimilar ways, all three novels suture the historical erasures that influenced the public sentiment about the War on Terror after 9/11. The novels engage with the revenge plot and political violence showing how pleasure, power and pain are bound up together. These texts challenge the premises of pro-torture justifications. Examining the relationship between narrative mediation and style sheds light on the ethics of portraying pain, bringing the wounded and Othered bodies of the victims of torture into the political discourses about the War on Terror.