“The synthesis of war and theatre”: socio-humanitarian discourse on the essence of terrorism

The article reveals the heuristic potential of social and humanitarian knowledge in understanding the complex nature of terrorism. The  given research optics allows to expand traditional frameworks of considering terrorism as a phenomenon caused by political, ideological and economic factors; to reveal and substantiate deep cultural and mental reasons of the given phenomenon; make sense of terrorism as a destructive form of cultural identity. The cultural and historical origins of modern terrorism, which is closely connected with radical Islam, are analyzed in the civilizational system of coordinates “West–East”. The system ofтargumentation is based on scientific concepts and current artistic practices that interpret the causes of inter-civilizational tension resulting in international terrorism. The change of the status of the artist in the “epoch of terrorism” is analyzed; the theme of theatricalization and aestheticization of terrorist actions and the role of media in these processes are problematized. As a newest trend, which has not received any serious theoretical reflection, the text considers the phenomenon conditionally designated as “sublimation of terrorist activity into a symbolic sphere”, which is manifested in the destruction of monuments of world cultural heritage, in the orientationтto culture as a new strategic object of terrorist attacks, on the one hand, and theтuse of cultural resources for self-presentation and promotion of their ideology by terrorist organizations, on the other.

1. Ali, T. (2006), Stolknovenie tsivilizatsii. Krestovye pokhody, dzhikhad i sovremennost’ [A clash of civilisations. Crusades, jihad and modernity], AST, Moscow, Russia.

2. Combs, C. (1997), Terrorism in the 21st Century, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, USA.

3. Eko, U. (2012), Polnyi nazad! “Goryachie voiny” I populism v SMI [Full back! “Hot Wars” and Populism in the Media], CORPUS, Moscow, Russia.

4. Flier, A.Ya. (2010), “The future cannot be returned”, in Kreativnost’ v prostranstve tradicii i innovacii: Tretii Rossiiskii kul’turologicheskii kongress s mezhdunarodnym uchastiem, Tezisy dokladov i soobschenii [Creativity in the space of tradition and innovation: The Third Russian cultural congress with international participation, Abstracts of reports and messages], EIDOS, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

5. Flier, A.Ya. (2011), Kul’turologiya 20-11 [Culturology 20-11], Soglasie, Moscow, Russia.

6. Groys, B. (2013), Politika poetiki [Politics of poetry], Ad Marginem Press, Moscow, Russia.

7. Hantington, S. (2003), Stolknovenie tsivilizatsii [Clash of Civilizations], AST, Moscow, Russia.

8. Kutyrev, V.A. (2009), “The clash of cultures with civilization as the cause and soil of international terrorism”, Vek globalizatsii [Age of Globalization], no. 2, pp. 92–102.

9. Said, E. (2006), Orientalizm [Orientalism], Russkii Mir”, Moscow, Russia.

10. Toffler, E. (2003), Metamorfozy vlasti. Znanie, bogatstvo i sila na poroge XXI veka [Metamorphoses of power. Knowledge, wealth and power on the threshold of the 21st century], AST, Moscow, Russia.