FRS 002HH — Sec. 001 — (2 units) — CRN 53288 — R 4:10 – 6:00 pm — 25 Wellman Hall
Cultures of Terrorism

Instructor: Marc Blanchard Department of Comparative Literature, College of Letters and Science

Description: 1)Its purpose is to examine the various, economic, social, psychological and physical components of a culture of fear, rage, aggression, guerilla, militarism and counterinsurgency which we are undergoing 2)also to investigate the particular North American varieties of terrorism and counterterrorism which put the United States in a special position, for reasons of its geography, history, political and legal practices 3)finally to help students develop their own intellectual and educational toolkit in the face of uncharted, often mysterious, incomprehensible threats. I propose also to adapt some of the strategies I developed during the Fall quarter. 1)I would make constant and consistent use of electronic resources, teaching the students how to search for information and use it to evaluate a situation, to build and calibrate an argument, and finally to develop a hands-on approach to the problem of collecting and filtering information concerning terrorisms. 2)In a new, adaptive move, I would require all students to buy a daily subscription to the NY Times for the duration of the Spring quarter, so that they could fullfill one of the assignments of the course: to develop adaptive strategies for the collection of information relevant to the terrorism crisis, its genesis, its development and its long term prospects. 3)Finally I would feature one single, literary book, as the work of reference in this course, throughout the quarter. The book is Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, one of the classics of early twentieth literature, and one particularly appropriate to the topic of terrorism, since Conrad's plot is built around a failed Anarchist plot to bomb and destroy the Greenwich Observatory in 1887 (the book was published in 1894). While Conrad is known mostly for his masterpiece The Heart of Darkness, whose fame was recently enhanced by the ongoing references made to the foundational aspects of the book (it is the first anticolonial novel, the first expose of the arrogance and hubris of imperialism) by postmodern critics, The Secret Agent shows the benefits of an ironic, reflexive and intellectually curious daily practice, some of which might be lacking in todays' abandons of purple political prose on all sides. Because The Secret Agent is a good read, even a page turner, because of its relevance to the present situation and, not least, because it makes for the teaching of first class literature, I propose that it makes sense to employ it in the context of a Freshman seminar, where the good will, the sense of established truths, and an honest desire to learn and to be free can be shown to remain the hallmarks of the Conradean universe.

Format: Each session is structured in three parts: 1)lecture-discussion on topics of the cultures of terrorism 2)discussion of assigned reading in Conrad's The Secret Agent 3)discussion of NY Times and web site relevant material. Grading: In addition to a final 5 pp. paper (40%), students are required to prepare short (2 paragraph logs per session) logs (30%), in which they review the material in the preceding session and keep track of their own intellectual development, as they explore one of the major issues in the culture of our time. Active participation in discussion of issues is expected (30%).

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