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60SECTION 4 ON TEACHING LITERATURE
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Studying the Nature of Suicide Terrorism:
A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks
Ekaterina Purgina
Ural Federal University, Associate Professor
620002, Russia, Ekaterinburg, Mirstr., 19; kathyl3@inbox.ru
The article is devoted to the problem of suicidal terrorism as explored in the novel, A Week In December by Sebastian Faulks. The author shares the experience of a classroom discussion based on the analysis of the novel and demonstrates how such analysis can be applied for discovering the psychological and social roots of suicidal terrorism.
Key words: suicidal terrorism, criticizing radical Islamism, Koran, text analysis, modern British literature.
Recently I have found myself searching for a piece of literary work that would give my students an insight into the mental and psychological side of suicide terrorism and at the same time would be transparent and easy enough to understand for those of them who do not major in Literature. The group I had in mind were on their 4th year taking Bachelor's degree in "International Relations”, so this explains the choice of the topic. We had a number of standard texts to read and listen to, all of them providing basic facts and theories concerning the phenomenon of terrorism in the modern world. However, when discussing such problems, students often tend to fall back on general statements such as 'terrorism is evil' or 'terrorism is an urgent problem to be solved' or 'all terrorists must be exterminated'. I wanted to give our discussion a more "human” touch and dwell on the question of terrorists' mentality and on the motivations underlying suicidal terrorist acts. The first book that came to my mind was Sebastian Faulks' A Week in December.
This book is referred to as a 'state-of-the-nation' novel and 'a compelling tale of contemporary London' [3] since it provides a broad social panorama, ranging from an MP, a famous footballer and
® Ekaterina Purgina, 2012
a hedge fund manager to a literary critic, a somewhat unsuccessful barrister and a Tube driver. A young boy Hassan and his personal evolution is one of the most interesting lines although, as some book reviews have pointed out, a bit unconvincing and far-fetched, especially when compared with how vividly the life of R.Tranter and the London literary scene are depicted. The simple reason for this is probably that while the latter was quite familiar to the author, the development of Hassan's extremist views had to be carefully reconstructed and required preliminary "homework” on the writer's part. A similar situation occurred to E.M.Forster and his renowned novel Howards End: while everything concerning the life of the English middle-class is described vividly and with ease, the image of clerk Leonard Bast [whose type was something the writer wasn't well acquainted with) was more demanding and required more effort, so it was later criticized for lacking realism.
Not surprisingly, the plot line of Hassan also turned out to be the most controversial one: the writer's comments on Islam and Koran, which were made after A Week in December had come out, provoked even more heated debates. In his interview to The Sunday Times Faulks made comments very much resembling that of his character Gabriel. 'Over nearly 400 pages, the principal message seemed a simple one: believe in me or burn for all eternity... What the book lacked was any reasoning or evidence to support its depiction of this radically divided afterlife' [1:194]) Moreover, in the novel a parallel is drawn between the invisible voice of the Islamic god and the voice that is heard by Gabriel's schizophrenic brother Adam - the voice of imaginary Axia: 'There was also something in the self-grounded and unargued certainty of the Koran that reminded him of something else, of someone he knew. A voice' [1:194]. Hassan gets a similar vision during his revelation moment on Waterloo Bridge: 'Where was it? Where was the voice, the voice of God that the Prophet had heard in the desert? ...This was what he must die for. What he must kill for. For that disembodied voice only and not for any other, he must go to the station, go to the hospital and kill' [1:380]. Both voices call for murder and destruction, the only difference is that while Hassan is ready to follow the voice of his God, Adam is trying 'to placate Axia and spare the fire this time' [1:373].
The image of Hassan al-Rashid as a "new terrorist” [as opposed to
classical nationalists and anarchists we know from history) is quite true to life. Although the general preconception is that terrorists tend to be underprivileged, coming from a lower-class background, sometimes narrow-minded and even mentally unstable, it is known that most of the present-day suicidal terrorists are very close to the one portrayed in Faulks' novel [2: 1537]. In his terrorist cell Hassan is often referred to as 'brains/brainy' and a 'college boy'. Like the people taking part in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hassan is far from being defective or lacking in anything: he comes from a comfortable upper-middle-class background, is well-educated and intelligent; he is also young and unattached.
With similar accuracy Faulks outlines the process of recruiting Hassan and his involvement into the activity of the terrorist cell. If you compare the account given in the book with the surveys on terrorism, all this sounds fairly typical: Hassan meets a charismatic trainer/leader Salim who skillfully builds a strong sense of exclusivity and commitment to die within his small group. Islamic religion in Salim's interpretation in fact comes down to the true knowledge of jihad and is perceived as their most important value helping create a sense of sharing and empowerment. At the same time Hassan grows more and more alienated from his family: the poignant scenes where Nasim and then Knocker are unsuccessfully trying to talk to him strongly reminds you of the mental torture that Parvez from Hanif Kureishi's story, 'My Son the Fanatic' goes through. Their 'compromising' form of Islam ('Be gentle, be accepting. Say your prayers. We are going to heaven, but we must be patient on this earth' [1: 260]) is not good enough for Hassan any more.
The process of Hassan's conversion into radical Islam is given in flashbacks and starts with the gradual polarisation of his world: this is when the word ‘kafir’ (unbeliever/infidel) acquires excessive value and significance. To some extent it happens because he cannot but see the discrepancy between what people around him claim they believe in and what they actually do: 'Their final loss of faith had happened in the last ten years or so, yet in the kafir world it had passed with little comment. How very strange they were, he thought, these people, that they had let eternal life slip through their hands... They were unfaithful in hotel rooms, but they got married in
churches.' [1: 15] For kafirs, as Hassan comes to call them, religion is no more than a mere formality, which for him, being raised in a religious family, is a hypocrisy, difficult to understand or accept ('It was perplexing to him that people paid so little heed to their own salvation; he was puzzled by it in the way he might have been by the sight of a mother feeding whisky to a baby' [1:15])
Another motivation which led Hassan towards joining Husam Nar is his search for identity. He finds it difficult to make a definite statement about who he is: his family coming from Punjab but having successfully integrated into the British society, he is caught in between the two cultures. The easiest and most evident way of obtaining a satisfactory identity for him is joining some kind of community that would share his views: 'It was a kind of joy. He no longer felt brown-skinned or alien or different; he felt enfranchised into a brotherhood of the wise... What he had found, he told himself, was identity, and an international one at that; what he had stumbled across was nothing less than himself - and such a discovery was sure to be exhilarating' [1:112]. The next group which accepts him after his disappointing experience in the LSG is Salim's: and again, the bait that Salim uses is the unquestioning acceptance of Hassan for what he is. The only other person outside Hassan's family who can do the same for him is Shahla.
However, Salim offers something more than just acceptance, he offers Hassan the one and only 'truth': 'Life did not need string theory, eleven dimensions and a battering of the head against the inherent contradictions of human consciousness. All it required was to follow a simple revealed truth. There it was, on the bookshelf for £6.99. For all time. What was more amazing, the glorious purity of the truth or the boneheaded refusal of people to accept the gift that had been given them?' [1:289]. What for Gabriel is a primitive 'no-brainer', [1:194] to Hassan seems pure and eternal truth, which requires to be brought into the kafir world.
While discussing Hassan's motivations in the class, my students put forward a theory that by committing an act of terrorism Hassan is trying to take revenge on the whole Western society for treating his nation and himself badly. Still it hardly seems to be the case: Hassan is by no means mistreated or discriminated, nor is he filled with hatred or anger. Nothing is said about this in the terrorist cell: They
are not the community of the oppressed, they perceive themselves as the community of the liberated and the enlightened. In the story of his involvement with radical Islam, Hassan's feelings range from bewilderment, when trying to understand the ways of other people, to elation, when he realizes that he knows the ultimate truth. Thus, the terrorist act is thought of as a 'gift' for the people who are going to behold it as well as for the whole 'self-mocking' British society. 'We are here to liberate the world: to bring to human beings the wonderful news that their lives do have meaning, purpose, beauty and immortality' [1:242]).
Once Hassan gets captured in the flow of events which lead him to participating in Salim's brutal plan (always covered by abstract, high-flown words), he finds it difficult to escape it as if he is paralysed, caught in this situation, like a fly in a spiderweb: he is clever and observant enough to notice lack of sincerity in the behaviour of the group's leaders, but he just can't get out of it all. After the final meeting, when the members of the terrorist cell were given instructions and were told that their target was a hospital, he no longer feels elated and for the first time is 'extremely frightened'. What seemed not quite real, more like an exciting game or a spy mission, now is close to becoming a horrible reality. The only way this situation can be resolved and some kind of happy end can be achieved is for the author to arrange the moment of spiritual epiphany, which is exactly what happens to Hassan on the bridge. Within the general context of the novel it can be considered as one of the clever plot twists designed to bring Hassan into the arms of Shahlah and to announce the ultimate triumph of love. As the Los Angeles Times critic wittily pointed out, 'in Faulks' deftly drawn contemporary London, he could lose paradise - and still get the girl' [4].
All in all, my small experiment proved to be successful: we managed to shift our classroom discussion to a more specific and humane angle, considering major trends of modern history in the context of individual human lives. An additional bonus came at the end of the tutorial, when some group members said they were interested in reading the whole book.
References:
• Faulks S. A Week in December. L., 2009.
• Atran S. Genesis of Suicide Terrorism //Science, New Series, Vol. 299, No. 5612 (Mar. 7,2003]. Pp. 1534-1539.
• Cartwright J. A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks // The Guardian.
August 23, 2009. [Electronic resource].
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/aug/23/week-in-december-faulks
• Rutten T. "A Week in December": a Novel by Sebastian Faulks // Los
Angeles Times. March 31, 2010. [Electronic resource].
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/31/entertainment/la-et-rutten31-2010mar31
Изучая природу суицидального терроризма:
Неделя в Декабре С.Фокса
Екатерина Пургина
Уральский Федеральный университет, доцент
620002, Россия, Екатеринбург, ул. Мира, 19; kathyl3@inbox.ru
Статья посвящена исследованию проблемы терроризма в романе С.Фолкса «Неделя в декабре». Автор делится опытом использования художественных текстов в курсе английского языка для студентов старших курсов по направлению «Международные отношения» и демонстрирует, как анализ отрывков романа «Неделя в декабре» позволяет раскрыть психологические и социальные истоки суицидального терроризма.
Ключевые слова: суицидальный терроризм; критика радикального ислама; Коран; анализ текста; современная британская литература.
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SECTION 5 TRANSLATORS AND TRANSLATIONS
In response to the interest shown in Adam Thorpe's account of translating Madame Bovary into English (an article reprinted in Footpath-5) we have decided to devote a special section to translations of modern English literature into Russian together with articles on the process of literature translation. Our first article is on Russian translations of Beryl Bainbridge, author of Master Georgie, who died in 2010. We also publish an article by Oliver Ready of St Antony's College, Oxford University who has translated Dostoevsky into English. His thoughts about translation (in Russian) should be of interest to all readers.
