Yours in Revolution: Retrofitting Carlos the Jackal

Thomas, S.

Abstract

This paper explores the representation of ‘Carlos the Jackal’, the one-time ‘World’s Most Wanted Man’ and ‘International Face of Terror’ – primarily in cin-ema but also encompassing other forms of popular culture and aspects of Cold War policy-making. At the centre of the analysis is Olivier Assayas’s Carlos (2010), a transnational, five and a half hour film (first screened as a TV mini-series) about the life and times of the infamous militant. Concentrating on the var-ious ways in which Assayas expresses a critical preoccupation with names and faces through complex formal composition, the project examines the play of ab-straction and embodiment that emerges from the narrativisation of terrorist vio-lence. Lastly, it seeks to engage with the hidden implications of Carlos in terms of the intertwined trajectories of formal experimentation and revolutionary politics.

Citation

Thomas, S. (2013). Yours in Revolution: Retrofitting Carlos the Jackal. Culture Unbound, 5, 451-478. https://doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.135451

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Sep 26, 2013
• Deposit Date: Feb 9, 2012
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 6, 2013
• Journal: Culture Unbound
• Electronic ISSN: 2000-1525
• Publisher: Linköpings University Electronic Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 5
• Pages: 451-478
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.135451
• Keywords: Terrorism, Carlos the Jackal, Naming, Faciality, Cold War, Embodiment, Assayas.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1483899