Telling stories of terrorism: a framework for applying narrative approaches to the study of militant's self-accounts

Simon Copeland

doi:10.1080/19434472.2018.1525417

Simon Copeland

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/19434472.2018.1525417

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Abstract

ABSTRACTNarrative has recently garnered in much attention in the study of terrorism but remains poorly understood. This paper offers some initial steps towards translating the promise of narrative approaches into a set of steps for systematically analysing and understanding terrorists’ own accounts of their engagement with extremism and militancy. This approach rests on the assumption that terrorist authored accounts are more than post-hoc rhetorical exercises that aim to persuade others, or even the authors themselves, of the righteousness of their political cause or otherwise mitigate their responsibility for their involvement in violence. In particular, I advance a framework for methodically applying narrative approaches to terrorist authored texts, in particular, autobiographies. In doing so, I will demonstrate how this approach can help better comprehend how individuals involved in militancy understand the world, draw upon existing narrative resources and give meaning to their actions.

Highlights

The idea that terrorist groups recruit followers by promoting reductionist and attractive ideological worldviews in the form of ‘extremist narratives’ has captured significant attention in security, policing and policymaking contexts
The recent special issue of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism edited by Graef, da Silva and Lemay-Hebert makes a case for the use of narrative approaches more generally in terrorism research and for analysing the accounts of those who have engaged in political violence (2018)
In order to demonstrate how this framework can be applied in practice, the accounts of two individuals who have engaged in political violence in different contexts will be explored

Summary

Introduction

The idea that terrorist groups recruit followers by promoting reductionist and attractive ideological worldviews in the form of ‘extremist narratives’ has captured significant attention in security, policing and policymaking contexts. The demonstrated applications of relevant theoretical literature, as well as methodological processes, in narrative criminology provide a good template for scholars of terrorism to aspire to (see for example Presser & Sandberg, 2015b – see Colvin & Pisoiu, 2018) In following their lead this paper aims to demonstrate how different disciplinary insights on narrative can be brought to bear in studying the accounts of terrorists as the literary texts that they are, as well as their capacity as windows into the psychological processes of their authors. Approaching the analysis of narratives in such a manner, it is possible to contrast the ‘what’ of ‘stories’ (or the content) with the ‘how and why’ of ‘narratives’ (their form, structure and the context in which they are told)

Objectives

Conclusion