Homegrown Violent Extremism in John Updike's Terrorist

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD Candidate, Department of English Language and Literature, Kish International Campus, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran

2 Professor of English Language and Literature, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

What happened on September 9/11 in the USA led to many changes in the world. Radicalism and homegrown terrorism has been as disastrous as foreign radicalism and violent extremism and terrorism. Since 9/11 many books and studies were conducted in different fields of sociology, psychology, politics, and education. The world of arts and literature was affected as well and many novels, dramas, papers, and films were produced. In this paper Updike's novel, Terrorist, is discussed. Views of McCauley and Moskalenko with regards to individual, group and mass homegrown violent extremism are used to see how Ahmad is made into a would be terrorist under the guidance of Sheikh Rashid. It is argued that lack of father in his life, bullying in school, life style of his mother and his environment lead to his isolation and search for identity. However due to doubts he does not become a terrorist at the end.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Research in Contemporary World Literature
Volume 27, Issue 1
August 2022
Pages 26-50

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