Plotting Terror in European Culture
This MIT OpenCourseWare seminar traces how European literature and film have represented political violence from the nineteenth century to the present. Readings begin with early anarchist figures in Kleist and Conrad, then move through the literary and media treatment of militant groups active in the 1970s and 80s, including Italy's Red Brigades, Germany's Red Army Faction, and the Real IRA. A midterm session centers on a lecture by filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta, discussing her work on terrorism on screen. The course closes by examining the recent return of "radical chic" imagery in European popular media, questioning why aesthetics once thought exhausted have resurfaced. Materials include the syllabus, reading list, and assignment prompts posted on MIT OCW, free to access with no certificate offered. The course treats terrorism as a cultural and narrative problem rather than a policy one, asking how societies keep retelling stories of political violence.