{"title":"Identifying with Terrorists: Reading and Writing Others In Sunjeev Sahota's Ours Are the Streets","authors":"Peter Morey","doi":"10.1353/sdn.2024.a921058","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>Sunjeev Sahota’s novel <i>Ours Are the Streets</i> tells the story of a young British Muslim man’s path to radicalization. It appears to be another fictional attempt to ‘get inside’ the terrorist mind. This essay argues, however, that the text dramatizes the pitfalls of empathic identification via a focalizing character whose mental state becomes unstable and his narrative increasingly unreliable. The protagonist’s uncontrolled Theory of Mind causes him to misrecognize others and their motives, even as he seeks solidarity. The reader too is led into an interpretative labyrinth which raises questions about the ethics of reading fiction and empathizing across cultural difference.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":54138,"journal":{"name":"STUDIES IN THE NOVEL","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"STUDIES IN THE NOVEL","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sdn.2024.a921058","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:
Sunjeev Sahota’s novel Ours Are the Streets tells the story of a young British Muslim man’s path to radicalization. It appears to be another fictional attempt to ‘get inside’ the terrorist mind. This essay argues, however, that the text dramatizes the pitfalls of empathic identification via a focalizing character whose mental state becomes unstable and his narrative increasingly unreliable. The protagonist’s uncontrolled Theory of Mind causes him to misrecognize others and their motives, even as he seeks solidarity. The reader too is led into an interpretative labyrinth which raises questions about the ethics of reading fiction and empathizing across cultural difference.
摘要:孙吉夫-萨霍塔（Sunjeev Sahota）的小说《我们的街道》（Ours Are the Streets）讲述了一名英国穆斯林青年的激进化之路。这似乎是另一部试图 "深入 "恐怖分子内心的虚构作品。然而，本文认为，文本通过一个精神状态变得不稳定、叙述越来越不可靠的焦点人物，戏剧化地揭示了移情认同的陷阱。主人公不受控制的 "心智理论 "导致他误认他人及其动机，甚至在他寻求声援时也是如此。读者也被带入了一个阐释的迷宫，提出了关于阅读小说和跨越文化差异产生共鸣的伦理问题。
期刊介绍：
From its inception, Studies in the Novel has been dedicated to building a scholarly community around the world-making potentialities of the novel. Studies in the Novel started as an idea among several members of the English Department of the University of North Texas during the summer of 1965. They determined that there was a need for a journal “devoted to publishing critical and scholarly articles on the novel with no restrictions on either chronology or nationality of the novelists studied.” The founding editor, University of North Texas professor of contemporary literature James W. Lee, envisioned a journal of international scope and influence. Since then, Studies in the Novel has staked its reputation upon publishing incisive scholarship on the canon-forming and cutting-edge novelists that have shaped the genre’s rich history. The journal continues to break new ground by promoting new theoretical approaches, a broader international scope, and an engagement with the contemporary novel as a form of social critique.
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