1 Queen Mary, University of London Symptom of the post-political – Terrorism in Contemporary German, British and Hollywood Cinema Maren Thom Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2014 2 I, Maren Thom, confirm that the research included within this thesis is my own work or that where it has been carried out in collaboration with, or supported by others, that this is duly acknowledged below and my contribution indicated. Previously published material is also acknowledged below. I attest that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge break any UK law, infringe any third party’s copyright or other Intellectual Property Right, or contain any confidential material. I accept that the College has the right to use plagiarism detection software to check the electronic version of the thesis. I confirm that this thesis has not been previously submitted for the award of a degree by this or any other university. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. Signature: Maren Thom Date: 12 September 2014 3 Abstract This thesis investigates the ways representations of terrorism in Hollywood, German and British cinema embody what Slavoj Žižek describes as the post- political, that is the current state of denial of alternatives within global politics and a directionlessness within cultural theory, which set in after the apparent defeat of the possibility of a radical alternative to capitalism. Moreover, this thesis proposes that films about terrorism are not only cultural expressions of the post-political, but also show the post-political condition to be problematic, displaying as they do symptoms such as the devaluation of human subjectivity and its concomitant failure to achieve progressive political change. Žižek’s philosophical approach as a method of interpreting the post- political is applied to the films Munich (2005), Zero Dark Thirty (2012) The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008) Die Kommenden Tage/The Coming Days, (2010) Four Lions (2010) and Hunger (2008). As well as Žižek’s work, the writings of other critics and commentators and such as Frank Furedi, Thomas Elsaesser, Kenan Malik and others are drawn on. The aesthetic and formal properties of these films are read against Žižek’s texts on ideology critique, which are primarily directed at the post-political. The films shown exhibit expressions of the post-political in notions of empathy and sustainability, campness, and postmodern forms of narrative, which Žižek calls filling in gaps, and Žižek’s concept of ‘the act’. By mapping the post-political in Hollywood, British and German cinema this research assays the manner in which screen terrorism is symptomatic of the post-political condition. 4 Contents 8 Acknowledgements 9 Abbreviations 10 Introduction 20 Terms, methods, context 22 The emergence of post-politics 24 Žižek’s approach to post-politics 28 Žižek establishes the acting subject as the fundamental condition for societal change 31 The impossible 33 A (post)-politics of Fear 36 Terrorism and its legislation 38 Terrorism as ideological fantasy and symptom of the post-political 49 The post-political uses film to contextualise itself 51 Chapter Outline 54 Part 1 Post-politics in Hollywood cinema 58 Chapter 1.1 Munich Empathy as a cultural expression of the post- political 60 Empathy – a theoretical tool 67 Intersubjectivity 72 Empathy as a master signifier of the postmodern and moral guideline of the post-political 75 Spielberg and empathy 80 Jewish identity in the context of Einfühlung 85 Jewish identity, morals and Munich 89 Empathic pathways in Munich 98 ‘The lie of Spielberg’ – Žižek 100 Conclusion 5 102 Chapter 1.2 Zero Dark Thirty – the ‘war on terror’ and the camp absurdity of the post-political 104 ‘Reality effects’ in Zero Dark Thirty 108 Zero Dark Thirty at the centre of public debate 111 The Hunt for bin Laden - giving meaning to the ‘war on terror’ 118 Post-political readings of Zero Dark Thirty - Shaviro and Žižek 125 Zero Dark Thirty as a camp film 130 The campness of the film’s audio and visual aesthetic 136 The campness of the film’s protagonist 145 Zero Dark Thirty and camp theatricality 153 Conclusion 156 Part 2 Post-politics in UK Cinema 159 Chapter 2.1 A Fantasy of Emancipation – The Cinema of Žižek’s True Act and Steve McQueen’s Hunger 161 Žižek and the true act 162 The act 173 Hunger – The importance of political status 175 The conceptualisation of Hunger and the art of Steve McQueen 182 A narrative of three parts 188 The act in Hunger 193 Conclusion 195 Chapter 2.2 Acting out and the post-political in Chris Morris’ film Four Lions 198 Chris Morris, satirist 204 Who is Chris Morris? 207 Žižek on the act and its variations 213 The act, the post-political, multiculturalism 215 Four Lions’ portrayal of a misdirected radicalism 6 222 Sharing space time with a ‘bunch of guys’ 226 Acting out – Motif not motive 232 Omar’s passage à l’acte 235 Conclusion 237 Part 3 The RAF mythos in post-political German cinema 240 Chapter 3.1 Filling in the Gaps of history – The RAF mythos and The Baader Meinhof Complex 242 Žižek and myth 246 What is the RAF Mythos? The RAF in the context of Vergangenheitsbewältigung 251 The History of the RAF film in Germany and The Baader Meinhof Complex in this context 260 The Baader Meinhof Complex – the past as reflective nostalgia 266 Filling in the gaps in The Baader Meinhof Complex 268 Filling in the Gaps of the 2 June 1967 with a subjectivised experience 272 Filling in the gaps of Ulrike Meinhof’s ‘jump into illegality’ with the fantasy of an act 277 Brigitte Mohnhaupt’s release and reorganisation of the RAF, filled with a gendered content 282 Conclusion 286 Chapter 3.2 Die Kommenden Tage 288 Die Kommenden Tage 290 Myth as everyday occurrence in the post-political 294 RAF mythos as normalised reality 297 Aktionismus 299 Images of Protest 300 The ‘Ohnesorg effect’ 306 The failures of the parent generation 7 310 The characters of Die Kommenden Tage 312 Counterculture 315 Endzeitdenken – Living in the end times 320 German Angst 325 The future is bright and full of fear – science fiction as a genre device to normalise myth 329 The truth of Die Kommenden Tage 332 Conclusion 334 Final comments 341 Bibliography 341 Works by Žižek 345 Žižek Interviews 346 Main bibliography 370 Newspaper and magazine articles 379 Other texts 383 Other media 384 Filmography 8 Acknowledgements I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my supervisors Guy Westwell and Alasdair King. They stuck with me and supported my ideas, especially at times when my own confidence was shaken. Guy, I have to thank for his dedication and his meticulous and extraordinary helpful review of my work. Alasdair’s thorough assessment, great insights and rigorous demands for tight argumentation, have enhanced my writing as well as my thinking. I would also like to thank everyone else in the Department of Film at Queen Mary, in particular Lucy Bolton, Jenny Chamarette, Libby Saxton and Annette Kuhn, whose time and encouragement will always be appreciated. My fellow PhD students who are delightful company and encouraging people to be around; Nick, Charlie, Jo, Hollie and Adrian. I am grateful to the staff at the SLLF office, Heather Heiner, Sharon Bernor, Lisa Stubbings and Julia Rollitt who have always had an open ear and were full of support. Then of course my parents, Waldi und Christian Thom, who have inspired me my whole life and who have thus, inadvertently, had a great part bringing this thesis into the world. Without them I would not have had the courage to undertake this project. My brother Felix, his wife Nina, their children Jasper and Line, were very helpful supportive. A big thank you goes to Norma and Duncan Dale who helped with advice and plenty of coffee. My friends – Jantje, Babsi and Birgit – who have kept me sane and ensured that I stayed part of the social world. And most of all I have to thank Alex, my greatest inspiration and greatest critic, sane-keeper, coffeemaker, proofreader, joke teller, design hero, clever comment maker and all round genius. Not to forget … Millmoss, Schtrumpel and Madamchen. 9 Abbreviations APO Außerparlamentarische Opposition or, English, extra-parliamentary opposition BRD German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland or, English, Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) CIA Central Intelligence Agency DEVGRU The United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group DI Digital Intermediate ETA Euskadi Ta Askatasuna FOIA Freedom of Information Act FX Effects (special/sound) GDR German Democratic Republic (East Germany) H.M. Her Majesty’s HSC Homeland Security Council IRA Irish Republican Army IS The Islamic State NHS National Health Service NPD Narcissistic Personality Disorder p.o.v. point-of-view PLO Palestine Liberation Organisation RAF Rote Arme Fraktion or, English, Red Army Faction SDS Sozialistische Deutsche Studentenbund or, English, Socialist German Student Union 10 Introduction This thesis thematises the duality of film in the post-political and the post- political in film. The aim is to show how terrorism, as a fantasy of the post- political, and terrorists and terrorist deeds, as symptoms of the post-political, are played out in national cinemas. This analysis aims to determine how the experience of post-politics is experienced through the cinemas of Hollywood, the UK and Germany. In order to demonstrate this, the aesthetic and formal properties of terrorist films are read alongside critical work exploring how the post-political shapes social life, including mainly the work of philosopher Slavoj Žižek, but also the writings of critics such as Frank Furedi, Thomas Elsaesser, Kenan Malik and others.