Article 3c: Losing the Plot: Narrative, Counter- Narrative And Violent Extremism (Glazzard., 2017)

Question 1

Narratives in this study

Answer 1

• Jihadi narrative = Muslims are under attack and must fight to defend themselves. The West is the enemy of the Islam and violence is necessary for survival and the route to salvation.
• Counter-narrative: means of preventing terrorism/ violent extremism.

Question 2

The role of literary studies in volent extremism narratives

Answer 2

Terrorists inspire their followers (like in the magazine Dabiq), they don’t merely persuade them. Understanding creative sources of this inspiration is vital for development of counter-narratives as an alternative to the propaganda of violent extremism groups.
This shows that:
- Terrorist creativity is a source of appeal.
- Appreciating the aesthetic dimension of terrorist propaganda makes its contribution to terrorist culture more clear.
- Appreciation of the literary form and function of terrorist propaganda must give pause for thought before we invest scarce resources in activities that may be counter-intuitive.

Question 3

3 main arguments of this paper

Answer 3

1. Counter-narrative approaches are currently built on weak foundations (coming from civil society organisations instead of academics).
2. Terrorist ideology writers are often literary authors and storytellers.
3. There is much to gain by bringing this task to the tools of literary studies.

–> Empirical counter-narrative theory is needed.

Question 4

The Theory of Narrative

Answer 4

A good narrative has 3 layers:
1. The fable: the event itself. A series of logically and chronologically related events that are caused or experiences by the actors.
Example: invasion of Lebanon with American support.
2. The story: how those events are presented to the reader.
Example: “I saw the terrible suffering of the innocent victims.”
3. The text: the verbal presentation of the story.
Example: “for every action there is reaction.”