Representations of Recognition and the Radicalised in Selected Fiction and TV Shows on ISIS

After the emergence of ISIS, the Anglophone literary and audiovisual scenes witnessed a transformation in the portrayal of the terrorist figure and in the treatment of issues related to jihadism, terrorism and radicalisation in recent works dealing with ISIS. The narratives in these works shifted from depicting the demonised terrorist to representing the humanised radicalised subject, giving the jihadi a voice and recognition. However, there remains not only a need for further studies on terrorism in fiction and visual culture, but also a gap in the fields of literature, film and TV studies on the topic of radicalisation as a precursor to terrorism. Thus, this thesis aims to study these narrations by looking deeply into representations of radicalisation, rather than terrorism, and the figure of the radicalised, instead of the terrorist. Using different theorisations and conceptualisations of the theory of recognition, it examines a selection of fictional and televisual works: Kamila Shamsie’s novel Home Fire, Muhammad Khan’s novel I Am Thunder, Fatima Bhutto’s novel The Runaways, Peter Kosminsky’s factual drama The State and the melodrama Black Crows by Hussam Alrantisi, Hussein Shawkat and Adel Adeeb. I argue that exploring representations of recognition and the radicalised contributes to understanding radicalisation and its factors.
The study begins by examining the claim to recognition of the radicalised characters in relation to listening and speaking in the selected novels under scrutiny. It moves on to look beyond the claim for recognition in the selected TV shows by investigating and comparing how they recognise the radicalised. I contend that in these works, recognition is used as a mode of textual and visual engagement. Theories of recognition facilitate an understanding of the process of radicalisation, while factors including the authors’ and directors’ identities and social and political discourses affect the degree of sympathy they evince.