CILM – City and (In)security in Literature and the Media

Coord: Susana Araújo

Description

CILM started as a project funded by FCT ref. PTDC/CLE-LLI/110694/2009. Some of our members have continued and developed with the above line of research CILM1. Since 2013, a new strand of the project was created , CILM2, in which three new lines of research have emerged.

CILM 1

CILM1 explores a growing number of urban narratives – or city novels –  concerned with questions of and about (in)security produced in both sides of the Atlantic since the early nineties. With the end of the Cold War and the emergence of highly mediatised international conflicts such as the Gulf War in 1991, writers grew particularly aware of the power of the image in the representation and construction of new geopolitical formations. From 1990 to 2010 we, thus, find a corpus of city novels which is increasingly conscious of the politicisation of the image as well as of the intricate relation between fiction and (in)security. Our analysis carefully examines the impact of the media in literary production. We depict how images, messages and metaphors circulate between media (particularly visual media) and are reworked by contemporary writers on both sides of the Atlantic.

The terrorist attacks of New York and Washington DC in 2001, the attacks in Madrid in 2004 and the London bombings in 2005 have exacerbated fears and fantasies of disaster which in the popular imagination have always been associated with the urban space. 9/11 fiction in the US, 11M novels in Spain and 7/7 narratives in the UK are now seen as part of a growing literary genre, through which writers from different countries have attempted to memorialise, reconstruct or, indeed, secure their cities. Although much critical attention has been given to the representation of the city in literature and in film, no systematic work has yet been devoted to the examination of how recent (in)securities are represented in urban fiction produced in both sides of the Atlantic.

Debates about security received an increasing amount of attention not only in the social sciences but also in philosophy from intellectuals such as Derrida and Habermas. Yet so far they have not been properly examined through a systematic literary or cultural studies perspective. Even though key concepts used by the social sciences in the study of urban security and surveillance such as the panopticism (Foucault), societies of control (Deleuze) state of exception (Agamben) and vision machine (Virilio) derived, to a great extent, from the fictional works of authors such as Kafka, Orwell, Bradbury and Burroughs, literary studies have been disengaged from the debates on the repercussions of security in contemporary society. By examining and systematising much of what has been produced in literature in the last two decades, we expect literary and cultural studies will re-assert their contribution to the current debates on security.

CILM2

Since 2013, we have developed a second strand of the project (CILM2), through which we have been developing three major research lines:

●      Comparing Home/lands: his line of research examines how the term “homeland” (a term reinvigorated with the creation of the Department for Homeland Security in the US ) has since, 2002, circulated between the US and Europe (including in academic and legal documents produced by the EU). This line of research encourages comparisons between different national, transnational and international approaches to concepts of “homeland,” and analyses current visual and narrative configurations of “home” and “land,” taking into consideration their specific geo-political contexts, the impact of colonial legacies in contemporary discourses, and the relation between the formation of new economic and political empires and the emergence of new borders.

●      Prison States and Narratives of Captivity: this thematic line explores the material and discursive construction of prisons and other carceral spaces and examines the historical, economic and psychological contexts which shape social status, conditions and jurisdiction of imprisoned subjects. Some researchers pay particular attention to different genres of carceral literature particularly those  produced by political prisoners. Others examine the relation between early and contemporary narratives of captivity.

●      Classes, Gender and Races of (In)security: this line of research explores how class, gender, race intersect in the creation of new narratives of (in)security. This line of research also examines how specific approaches to classes, gender and/or race by artists and writers have contributed to interrogate and critique mainstream notions of “security” and “safety.”.


Objectives

• To compare and examine the circulation of discourses of/about security in different national, international, and transnational contexts;
• To compare and analyse how the notion of “homeland” (a term reinvigorated with the creation of the Department for Homeland Security in the US) has circulated not only in the US but also in Europe since 2012, in its different political, cultural, and legal configurations (including EU documents and official discourses.);
• To explore the material and discursive construction of prisons and other carceral spaces in different national contexts;
• To examine how constructions and representations of class, race, gender, and sexuality are shaped by notions of (in)security;
• To explore how new configurations of (in)security, as well as the narratives and images associated with the notion of “home(land)”, are reinforced by the intersections between globalisation, nationalistic discourses, and neo-liberal formations.

Recent and planned activities
 

We have organised several conferences related with the above strands of research (CILM1 and CILM2). For detailed information about our activities: For more information see CILM site: http://cilm.letras.ulisboa.pt/: http://cilm.letras.ulisboa.pt/.

We are currently preparing a joint publication about the mechanisms and representation of violence and discourses about “domestic insecurity” (private and geo-political) , bearing in mind contemporary national and international configurations.

Previous Activities
 

This is a selected list of our key-conferences:

●      International Conference and Art Exhibit: Endangered Bodies: Representing and Policing the Body in Western Culture. 8^th and 9^th October, 2018. School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon (Portugal).

●      International Conference: Prison States and Political Embodiment. 7^th and 8^th September, 2017. School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon (Portugal).

●      International Conference: Home_lands and the border(s) of 'America'. 27^th September, 2016. School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon (Portugal).

●      International Conference: The Uncanny Return of American Exceptionalism in American Culture, with Donald E. Pease (Dartmouth College). 25^th September, 2014. School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon (Portugal).

●      International Conference: Images of Terror, Narratives of (In)security: Literary, Artistic and Cultural Responses. 23^rd and 24^th April, 2013. School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon (Portugal).

For more information about our conferences and activities see CILM site: http://cilm.letras.ulisboa.pt/ 

Key Publications
 

1. Araújo, Susana (2023), “Nordic (In)securities, Transatlantic Anxieties and Global Crises: The Inhospitable “Homeland” in Northern European films in Crisis and the Culture of Fear and Anxiety in Contemporary Europe. Eds. Zamorano, Stier and Gray  Accepted by peer-reviewers and revised - forthcoming.
2. Honório, Salomé (2022), Troubling Textualities: Insubordinate Politics and Conflicted Complicity in the Work of Kathy Acker (1978-1988). Thesis in Comparative Studies, FLUL. PhD Thesis in Comparative Studies. Summa cum Laude.
3. Alves, Ana Raquel Romão (2021), "Weaponized Women in Contemporary Visual Culture: Representing Military Women in the War on Terror." PhD Thesis in Comparative Studies, FLUL.  Summa cum Laude.
4. Scaraggi, Elisa (2020), “Practices and Experiences of Incarceration: an Inquiry into Papéis da Prisão by José Luandino Vieira.” PhD Thesis in in Comparative Studies, FLUL. Summa cum Laude.
5. Scaraggi, Elisa, Daniel Lourenço, Susana Araújo e Cristina Martínez Tejero (2019), "Tracing the Contexts of Imprisonment: Perspectives on Incarceration between the Human and Social Sciences. An Introduction." Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais, 120,  https://journals.openedition.org/rccs/9431
6. Araújo, Susana ( 2015), Transatlantic Fiction of 9/11 and the War on Terror: Images of Terror, Narratives of Captivity. London: Bloomsbury Academic. CHOICE OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE 2015
7. Araújo, Susana (2015), ‘Inhospitality, Security, and the Global “Homeland” in Michael Haneke’s Caché’ in Security and Hospitality in Literature and Culture, ed. Clapp and Ridge, New York and London: Routledge.
8. Araújo, Susana, Marta Pinto e Sandra Bettencourt (2015), Fear and Fantasy in a Global World. Amsterdam: Brill. https://brill.com/view/title/32464  
9. Araújo, Susana, Ana Raquel Fernandes e Sandra Bettencourt (2012), (In)seguranças no Espaço Urbano: Perspetivas Culturais. Edited with A. R. Fernandes and S. Bettencourt. Húmus: Santo Tirso.
10. Araújo, Susana (2018), “Transatlantic transactions: UK–US relations and the ‘War on Terror’ in Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer”, European Journal of English Studies, 22:2, 178-191, DOI: 10.1080/13825577.2018.1478260

All Publications

http://cilm.letras.ulisboa.pt/index.php/pt

Contact

Email: s.i.araujo@gmail.com