Towards Post-Terrorism: Necro-Nationalism and Cultures of Violence in Insurgency Literature

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Pavan Kumar Malreddy
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 288013699

This research investigates the uneasy conflation of contemporary discourses on terrorism with the insurgency violence in India, Nigeria and Burma, which are home for some of the longest-running armed conflicts in the postcolonial world. It seizes upon the prolific output of insurgency literature - novels, autobiographies, reportage narratives - in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. A major contribution of this research lies with its timely construction of a preliminary body of comparative criticism on insurgency literature, while identifying a thematic shift in its historical trajectory: from the dichotomous configuration of armed conflicts as the products of competing ideologies between the state and revolutionaries, to a more nuanced account of the diffused and disenfranchised nature of violence among a wide spectrum of political actors. Correspondingly, this research proposes an alternative framework through a subset of concepts, namely necro-nationalism and cultures of violence, that help underscore how the longue durée of conflicts in India, Nigeria and Burma have led to the construction of violence as a normative cultural practice among state authorities, private armies and insurgency groups. Hence, the suggested move towards post-terrorism in this research is inspired by the same ethical bind as its theoretical commitment to register the multiple modalities of violence that pervade contemporary world politics. Considering the fact that this project is based in Germany, it holds a strategic advantage to draw upon, and respond to, the debates on violence in the German literary studies (Germanistik und Komparatistik), Holocaust Studies, and Memory Studies.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants