The roundtable on the specific challenges presented by the global phenomenon of terrorism for teachers and researchers in English literature proved to be a lively and controversial gathering. This being a roundtable, the participants had been asked to consider the impact of terrorism on literature and our profession as a whole rather than present close readings of specific texts, leaving ample room for discussion.
Helga Ramsey Kurz opened the debate with a statement (questions).
Greta Olson focussed on the ways in which
Neil Forsyth's contribution stressed the historical continuity of terrorism by focusing on a recent debate surrounding re-readings of Milton in the light of current affairs. Georgia Christinidis related the phenomenon of terrorism to ongoing debates about the representation and aesthetics of trauma.
The audience comments and questions showed that there is a wide spectrum of diverging views on literary representations of terrorism, depending on the way in which the relationship between literature and current political affairs is conceptualised. In this sense, the confrontation with a seemingly extra-literary topic forced all speakers position themselves
Representation of the terrorist, otherness
Many blind spots in Eurocentric terrorism discourses were pointed out by colleagues working in postcolonialism and the New Literatures in English.