754 Schermerhorn Ext. (NOT 527!)
Department of English and Comparative Literature
Department of Germanic Languages, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harriman Institute, Center for Comparative Media, ICLS
With Anders Engberg-Pedersen, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Southern Denmark, Director of the Humanities Center, and Chair of Humanities at the Danish Institute for Advanced Studies
In the past decade, authors, politicians, and military institutions have sought to leverage imaginative literature for the cause of national security. On the basis of concepts such as “useful fiction” and “FICINT,” a shorthand for «fictional intelligence,” they have blended nonfictional research and predictive threat scenarios with the creative inventions and emotional appeal of narrative fiction. The result is a hybrid genre – the national security novel – which functions as a sort of dual use technology for both general audiences and military institutions. What is the nature of this curious genre and what are its historical precursors? In this talk, I trace how the national security novel developed through a process of securitization that has gradually merged imaginative literature with the realms of policy and military strategy.
