Int Polit https://doi.org/10.1057/s41311-018-0171-z ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Narratives and the romantic genre in IR: dominant and marginalized stories of Arab Rebellion in Libya Alexander Spencer1

© Macmillan Publishers Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2018

Abstract  The article shows how the rebellion against Gaddafi in Libya in 2011 was romanticized in the British newspaper media and among the political elite. Combining insights from literary studies and employing a method of narrative analysis which focuses on the elements of setting, characterization and emplotment, it illustrates the process of narrative romanticization by emphasizing story elements which constitute the rebellion in an emotional setting in which the rebel is characterized as a young and brave underdog fighting against a brutal and oppressive regime for an ideal such as democracy, freedom and a better future. While romantic narratives were dominant in the discourse on Libya at the time, other less positive narratives which for example emphasize human right violations by rebels were marginalized through a strategy of silencing, denial, ridicule and justification. While the dominance of romantic narratives of rebellion aided the legitimation of British military intervention, the marginalization of negative counter-narratives contributed to the ignorance of extremism and set a bad precedent for the role of human rights in post-conflict Libya. Keywords  Narrative · Romance · Discourse · Constructivism · Britain · Libya Humans are story telling animals.1 The human is not only a Homo sapiens, Homo oeconomicus or Homo sociologicus but also a Homo narrans (Ewick and Silbey 1995; Hutto 2007). It is this ability to tell and comprehend stories which sets us 1

  The research in this article is based on Spencer (2016).

* Alexander Spencer [email protected] 1



Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany

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apart from other living things on this planet. As scholars in Psychology and History have shown, humans comprehend the social world around them in the form of narratives from which they draw identities and which guide their actions (Sarbin 1986; White 1973). This article is interested in one particular narrative genre, namely romance. Considering the empirical focus of this article, this may seem odd, as western stories about the Middle East and the Arab in the context of the ‘War on Terror’ have generally not been very romantic. Here the Arab is not the hero but the villain, as the narratives widely construct the setting of the Middle East as threatening with the Arab character being considered a potential terrorist who is emplotted to be fighting against freedom (AbdelNour 2004; Jackson 2005). Many of these highly negative representations are based on what Edward Said refers to as orientalist structures of knowledge which diametrically oppose the Western/European ‘us’ with the Oriental/Arab ‘other’ and constitute the Arab as dangerous, threatening, violent, cruel and generally different (Said 2003). Yet, while Said’s orientalism predominantly focuses on the negative attributions associated with the Arab, there is also a more positive romantic side to the representation of Arabs and the Middle East (Bhabha 1983; Irwin 2006). While the insight that the rebel movement against Gaddafi was romanticized will not be very surprising given the open support of many western governments and large parts of the media for their cause, the narrative structure of such romanticization is noteworthy as it includes many of the classical features of romanticism of rebellion found in poems by Byron or films such as Lawrence of Arabia. The first aim of the article is to outline a method of narrative analysis and showing that romantic stories are important for our understanding of international politics. Secondly, it will illustrate the suggested method and the romantic narrative genre by showing how the story of rebellion against the Gadhafi regime in 2011 was told as a romantic story by the British political elite and newspaper media using many of the narrative features of British romanticism. Thirdly, it holds that this romanticization is directly connected to the marginalization of other more tragic counter-narratives which emphasize human rights abuses by rebels through the strategy of silencing, refuting, ridiculing, presenting the claimed acts as understandable or even embedding them into the romantic story. In pursuit of this the article will be structured as follows: The first part will elaborate a method of narrative analysis by focusing on the narrative elements of setting, characterization and emplotment. Part two will, from the existing literature, outline some of the features of romanticism which are to be encountered in the empirical analysis. Part three will illustrate the method and the romantic genre by retelling the narratives found in the newspaper media and in parliamentary debates and speeches of leading politicians in Britain. Part four will indicate the existence of counter-narratives which emphasis human rights violations by rebels during the conflict but which remain marginal through a silencing, denial, ridicule and justification. The conclusion will indicate the potential policy relevance of romantic narratives of rebellion in Libya.

Narratives and the romantic genre in IR: dominant and…

Narratives and their analysis While narratives can be simply understood as ‘someone telling someone else that something happened’ (Herrnstein Smith 1981: 228) they nevertheless ‘do political work’ (Kohler Riessman 2008: 8) as they play an important role in the constitution of norms, identities and ideologies and are fundamental to the construction of not only the individual and past historical experiences but also the current political world (Ewick and Silbey 1995; Shenhav 2006). As Ronald Krebs (2015: 813) holds, ‘stories are the vehicles through which human beings define their reality and link thought to action’. Based on insights gained in psychology and history, narratives are important for political science from two perspectives: A cognitive perspective based on the insights from narrative psychology and a cultural perspective inspired by research into historical narratives. The cognitive perspective emphasizes that narratives are a fundamental part of human cognition. Narratives here are considered to be part of human mental activity and give meaning to experiences (Sommer 2009; Brockmeier and Carbaugh 2001). As Mark Turner (1996: 4–5) points out: ‘Narrative imagining— story—is the fundamental instrument of thought […] It is a literary capacity indispensable to human cognition generally’. Similar to metaphors or analogies, already adopted into the realm of politics and IR, narratives illustrate a cognitive process of making sense of the world through narration as humans generally consider their life as a more or less coherent story (Lakoff and Johnson 1980; Spencer 2012). From the second perspective narratives are a culturally embedded phenomenon which is part of every society. Myths and stories of the past and thereby information about our forefathers are an essential, not necessarily intentional, part of all forms of community, nation or state building where the constitution of a common identity is sought. Groups, be they local or regional communities, nation states or (international) organizations, narrate and re-narrate events of the past in order to establish shared values and norms and constitute and shared cultural identity (Erll 2009: 212). Cultural memory is above all made up of different narratives which provide ‘us with a fundamental epistemological structure that helps us to make sense of the confusing diversity and multiplicity of events and to produce explanatory patterns for them’ (Fludernick 2009: 2). These thoughts are not fundamentally new for political science or IR and are very much in line with the cultural, discursive or post-positivist turn and a constructivist understanding of politics in which reality is constituted through discourse (Brockmeier and Carbaugh 2001: 9; Heinen 2009: 199; Browning 2008; Krebs 2015; Inayatullah and Dauphinee 2016). Research on narratives here has focused on identity constructions of self and other, the drawing of borders and national security (Ringmar 1996; Campbell 1998; Hansen 2006; Browning 2008; Krebs 2015), the influence of (pop-)cultural narratives (Nexon and Neumann 2006; Lacassagne et al. 2011) or the use of Hayden White’s insights into historical narratives and explanations (Suganami 2008; Roberts 2006). Yet despite the widespread use of the concept very little attention has been paid to the roots or

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rather home turf of narratives, namely the field of Narratology (Krebs 2015: 813). Narratology offers concrete categories for the empirical analysis of narrativesincluding the element of setting, characterization and emplotment (Bruner 1991). With regard to the setting the idea is that, similar to a stage play or a film, the background or location in front of which the story unfolds is of importance for the narrative as a whole (Toolan 2001: 41). We all want to know where a story plays and we consciously or unconsciously look for indicators of the surrounding as they give us a clue of the kind of story we are about to indulge in. While the setting of a film is generally apparent as the viewer can see for him or herself what is going on behind the actors and actions, this is not so much the case in written texts. Here the setting has to be illustrated or at least indicated explicitly as it is the only means for the reader to construct a background. While these settings are individually and subjectively constituted, they draw on culturally imbedded story genres which are commonly shared throughout society and are thereby intersubjective. A setting is however never complete as it cannot show or describe the whole ‘story world’ or universe in which the story it taking place (Rimmon-Kennan 2002). It always has to leave spaces which are filled by the reader or viewers imagination. In addition, the setting is not only a passive background picture which provides the colourful backdrop for the actions and the characters. The setting itself can become part of the action and provide a reason or indication of why the story develops the way it does. It offers an insight into why characters are the way they are and why they pursue their actions in a particular fashion. Settings can thereby give very helpful insights into the reasons or justifications for actions as they set the limits of appropriate behaviour in a given context (Nünning 2001). A second important narrative element is concerned with the characterization of actors in the story. The human (like) character endowed with a particular identity is a crucial element of a narrative. ‘The actors are provided with distinct traits. In this manner they are individualized and transformed into characters’ (Toolan 2001: 41). There are a number of ways in which the characterization and identity of an actor in the story can be influenced. The first and the most simple is giving the agent a name or label rather than simply referring to him, her or it by their occupation or role they play in the story. The giving of a name personalizes the relationship between the reader/viewer and the agent in the story. Secondly, an agent is characterized by being placed in relation to others. For example this can involve hierarchical relationships such as in the family (mother child) or in society (king servant) or more equal relations such friends, lovers or (business) partners (Fludernick 2009: 44–45). A third means of characterization involves the description of the agent’s physical attributes such as clothes or outer appearance including facial expression. As most of these are considered to be a deliberate choice of the agent and under his control they are thought to provide an insight into the character. As Toolan (2001: 90) points out: ‘powerful cultural and biological traditions associate appearance with identity and character, the immediately “readable” former being taken as to some degree indicative, expressive and even constitutive of the latter’. A fourth possibility of characterizing an agent is through his/her/it’s thought process or direct speech. What the character thinks or says greatly influences our perception of what that agent is like and how he/

Narratives and the romantic genre in IR: dominant and…

she/it becomes a character. While the narrator of story if fully responsible for suggesting the thought of characters, the direct speech in newspaper commentary or other media channels is not under the full control of the narrator even though a bias remains as the narrator is responsible for the selection or omission of particular direct speech quotes (Herman and Vervaeck 2007). Apart from the name giving, the relationship to others, the description of appearance and direct speech, a final very important implicit aspect of characterization is the way in which the agent acts. Ultimately the behaviour, as indicated above, has an important effect on how we perceive the character to be like (strong, weak, brave, cowardly, etc.). The third narrative element of emplotment provides an overarching context and makes events, characters and their behaviour coherent and intelligible as it offers an explanation or reason for why settings or characters are the way they are and why they behave in the way they do (Ryan 2004: 9; Ewick and Silbey 1995: 200). At the same time the setting, characters and their behaviour contribute to a particular kind of emplotment and thereby offer explanations or reasons for the further development of the narrative as they provide the grounds on which the story can be emplotted. From a narrative perspective it is by emplotting an actor in settings that actions become meaningful. Action and events and their meaning through their emplotment are essential for a narrative, as one cannot have a narrative composed only of settings and characters. The characters in a story have to do something for a reason. As Fludernick (2009: 5) points out: ‘Such a mutually interdependent relationship between story and action is, for the most part, the norm—in most narratives the story is concerned with chains of events’. The action or the happening does not necessarily have to be the direct consequence of action by characters, but the happening or rather event understood as an action has to lead to more action. So the events do not stand on their own, and they have to be placed in relation to others events or actions. In particular, the causal dimension of emplotment is of importance. What has commonly been termed ‘causal emplotment’ elaborates the relationship between the elements of a story mentioned above (Paterson and Renwick Monroe 1998). It is through the emplotment of events and the actions of characters in front of a setting that they gain a narrative meaning. The notion of causal emplotment illustrates how events hang together. ‘Plot can thus be seen as the logic or syntax of narrative’ (Somers 1994: 617). Overall this section has shown that literary studies and Narratology offer a number of categories which may guide the investigation of political narratives such as setting of a story, the characterization of the actors involved and the emplotment of events (Bruner 1991). All of these narrative elements are important parts of a narrative and offer analytical categories which are identifiable in language and text. While not all of these dimensions are always of the same importance, they may all serve as focal points for more detailed analysis. Although part three will focus on the narrative elements of setting, characterization and emplotment, it is important to stress that the boundaries between these elements can be blurred. For example, the labelling of an actor as a ‘freedom fighter’ can be part of his or her characterization while at the same time saying something about the perceived causes of a conflict such as lack of freedom which is considered part of the emplotment.

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A romantic story genre As pointed out by Hayden White, there are a number of different ways of telling a story including genres such as tragedy, comedy, satire and romance (White 1973). The genre of romance has been picked up by a number of scholars who have articulated a particular setting, the characterization of the agents and emplotment in a romantic genre (Frye 2006; Jacobs and Smith 1997; Ku 1999). In the social sciences, the notion of romanticization is also not alien as it has been applied to a number of diverse actors including the poor in the global south (Karnani 2009), local indigenous actors in East Timor (Richmond 2011), small rural agricultural farms in the European Union (Lauring Knudsen 2005) or the Samurai in Japan (Lee 2011). Nevertheless there are vast differences in the conceptualization of a romantic story, especially in different periods and cultures and the concept of a romantic story has adapted to the verve of the time. As Fischer (1991: 25) argues: ‘As is well known, the word romance has a succession of different meanings in the course of history, which only shows how vague it is as the name of a genre’. This has led to a debate over the validity and usefulness of the concept of ‘romantic’ or ‘romanticism’. Critics such as Arthur Lovejoy (1924: 232) note: ‘The word “romantic” has come to mean so many things that, by itself, it means nothing’. Lovejoy therefore argues for using the concept of romanticism only in the plural as even the time period of romanticism at the end of the eighteenth century consisted of very different movements in Germany, France and Britain. Others such as René Wellek (1949) strongly disagree with Lovejoy and hold that there are very basic yet fundamental particularities of romanticism which contrast it to other terms such as ‘classical’ or ‘realistic’. The following sections will briefly illustrate some of these basic aspects in the form of a general understanding of ‘romance’ based on British romanticism and considered to be essential for such a genre in the context of this article. This does not mean that the elements mentioned below are the only way of understanding a romantic story, but that these elements are visible in the existing literature as well as being applicable to the political phenomena such as the rebel movement against Gaddafi. In order to mirror the sections above, the focus will be on the notion of setting, characterization and emplotment although many of these categories overlap to a certain extent. There are a number of elements of a romantic setting which are important for the analysis which is to follow. Firstly, as Hermann Fischer (1991: 25) points out, ‘the romance concentrates on far-away, foreign and exotic settings’. Secondly, this setting offers the background for the characteristic adventure or quest in a romantic narrative which involves some sort of conflict involving two antagonistic sides (Frye 2006: 179). Thirdly, while a romantic narrative is generally an exciting and entertaining story involving conflict and importantly adventure, it is also a sentimentally emotional story. Above all a romantic story is one of sentimentality and emotions (Radford 1986: 8; Fischer 1991: 31). Finally, in contrast to the myth the romance is concerned with the world in which we live, it ‘takes place in, or at any rate primarily concerns, our world’ (Frye 2006: 174). This does not mean that the setting of a romantic story has to be situated in the present, but the problems and issues raised

Narratives and the romantic genre in IR: dominant and…

in the story are concerns we are faced with in our existence. The problems are of a ‘less comprehensive scope’ than for example in an epic and the story and its setting are less grand and impressive (Fischer 1991: 27). The main character in a romantic narrative also displays a range of characteristic features. Firstly he or she is said to be a strong, brave and courageous and more importantly truthful, upright, proud and honourable character who follows certain ideals (Ku 1999: 71; Hansen 2006: 100). He or she is often considered a hero engaged in a dialectic conflict with an opponent. In the conflict, the hero is characterized into the underdog position in the adventure struggling against the odds, facing an opponent in an economically or physically stronger yet morally weaker position (Fleisher Feldman 2001: 133). Secondly, in connection to this, it is important to stress that the ‘hero’ is not perfect and divine, while the opponent is pure evil. ‘The enemy is associated with winter, darkness, confusion, sterility, moribund life, and old age, and the hero with spring, dawn, order, fertility, vigor, and youth’ (Frye 1957: 187). While there is dichotomy, it is less extreme as the hero as well as the opponent remain human (Fischer 1991: 21). ‘We have distinguished myth from romance by the hero’s power of action: in the myth proper he is divine, in the romance proper he is human’ (Frye 2006: 175). Thirdly, partly through the humanness of the character we are able to identify with him or her. This is further strengthened through insights into the private side of the character such as his or her beliefs, thoughts, emotions, human reactions and ‘true-to-life dialogue’ (Fischer 1991: 28) we consider to be realistic and understandable. In a romance, the character becomes likable and there is a strong identification between the reader and the hero (Cawelti 1976). A romantic narrative ‘describes a human fate in such a way that the reader can identify with it’ (Fischer 1991: 30), it ‘is fundamentally a drama of self-identification’ (White 1973: 8). Again in the case of emplotment, there are a number of romantic elements which one should highlight. Firstly, as mentioned above, the romantic story is about a sequential adventure or quest (Frye 1963: 16). As Frye (2006: 179) points out, ‘the quest for buried treasure has been a central theme of romance from the Siegfried cycle to Nostromo, and is unlikely to be exhausted yet. Treasure means wealth, which in mythopoeic romance often means wealth in its ideal forms, power and wisdom’. Secondly, a romantic narrative commonly involves some sort of conflict between two antagonistic sides in which the reader/viewer/listener identifies with the hero of the story (Jameson 1975: 138). As Frye (2006: 174) holds: ‘The central form of romance is dialectical: everything is focused on a conflict between the hero and his enemy, and all the reader’s values are bound up with the hero’. This conflict is frequently one involving a kind of asymmetry in which the hero is facing an uphill struggle against the odds. He or she has to overcome a far larger, a more powerful opponent and thereby resists and challenges the existing order. As Ku (1999: 63) points out, this sometimes also takes on the form of a conflict between periphery and centre so that ‘[n]ationalist struggles and social movements usually take the form of romance’. Thirdly, the causes of the conflict in a romantic narrative are situated in some form of injustice within the established order. The hero is not so much in the situation due to his or her own faults but due to existing illegitimate structures or behaviour by the opponent. He or she is forced to do what he/she is doing. So the

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hero does not pick a fight for the fun of it or only for his or her own personal benefit but due to circumstances beyond individual control. Finally, and related to this, the hero is fighting for some kind of ideal or sacred value such as liberation, justice, freedom, democracy, love. ‘Romanticism, as a kind of narrative culture, presents itself as a strong conviction in the spirit and conduct of combating for the ideal’ (Ku 1999: 65). In the case of love, the emotions involved do not necessarily have to be towards another character in the story but can be towards a family, community or country (Cawelti 1976). ‘The romance is nearest of all literary forms to the wishfulfilment dream’ as there is a certain level of idealism in the emplotment in which the hero is seeking a kind of utopian future (Frye 2006: 173; Jameson 1975: 138; Radford 1986: 9; Jacobs and Smith 1997: 68). From these insights, one is able to reduce the genre of romance to a number of elements commonly attributed to romanticism such as an exotic and emotional setting, likable, brave and heroic characters as well as an asymmetric conflict over an ideal (see Table 1) which are clearly visible in the following empirical analysis of the British political and media narratives of rebellion in Libya.

Romantic narratives of rebellion in Libya The following part will briefly illustrate how the rebellion in Libya against Colonel Gaddafi in 2011 was told in the form of a romantic narrative by the British political elite and the newspaper media. In order to capture this romantic story, the article examines 90 of the most relevant articles published in the Guardian, the Times and the Sun newspapers2 as well as all the parliamentary debates in the House of Common on the situation in Libya and on UN Security Council Resolution 1971 on the intervention in the country from the beginning of the conflict (17.02.2011) until its official conclusion (31.10.2011). This is further supplemented by a number of public speeches given at the time by Prime Minster David Cameron. As the reader will notice rather than simply paraphrasing the content of the different articles, the employed form of narrative analysis relies on the citation of numerous words (adjectives, verbs and nouns) and phrases in order to create a collage from the newspaper reports and parliamentary debates along the narrative elements of setting, characterization and emplotment. This, although at times unhelpful to the readability due to excessive endnotes, makes the presentation of the narrative elements transparent and verifiable.3

2   The article uses the Nexis (formerly Lexis Nexis) news database to search for the concepts of ‘Libya’ and ‘rebel’. The newspapers were selected as they cover both the left and the right of the political spectrum as well as a more popular tabloid story about rebellion in Libya. Analysis beyond the 90 articles did not yield any new or alternative narrative elements. 3   However, it is important to note that by creating a collage of a vast number of quotes, this article is itself a narrative. This narrative is inherently subjective. Yet through transparency, verifiability and showing the extensiveness of the narrative elements, it aims at making the subjective story intersubjectively verisimilar. Due to limited space, each footnote will only include one example article where this phrase or word can be found.

Narratives and the romantic genre in IR: dominant and…

Setting While the narrative of rebellion is set in the wider context of the Arab Spring, there are material or scenic indications of a romantic setting which constitute the narrative as one set in an exotic, faraway and foreign ‘desert’4 which is very different to the setting of the everyday in Britain. ‘At the meeting Nicholas Sarkozy hosted in Paris, we made the right choice: to draw a line in the desert sand, and to halt his murderous advance by force’.5 Furthermore, one does encounter references and scenes which play in a desert with ‘sand dunes’6, ‘blue sky’7 and ‘palm trees’8 where the ‘sun sets’9 on rebel positions well known from films such as Lawrence of Arabia. The exciting and emotional side to the romantic setting, such as celebration, fear, hope and drama,10 appear prominently: ‘This has been the most dramatic episode of what has been called the Arab Spring’.11 While the emotion at first includes fear of Gaddafi this transcends into joy as ‘[p]eople are not afraid’12 anymore. While the civilian population was at first ‘deeply fearful of Gaddafi’13, the ‘fear barrier is broken’14: ‘Where there was fear, now there is hope and an optimism and belief that is truly inspiring’.15 The emotion of fear is replaced after victories with an ‘explosion of joy’16 and ‘ecstatic celebrations’17 as the rebels are enthusiastically embraced and ‘greeted by civilians lining streets, cheering and waving rebel flags’.18 As the narrative element of characterization will show in more detail, the rebel is said to be on the side of the people of the street against an oppressive regime.

4   William Hague, Statement in the House of Commons, London (7 March 2011), available at: http:// www.publi​catio​ns.parli​ament​.uk/pa/cm201​011/cmhan​srd/cm110​307/debte​xt/11030​7-0001.htm#11030​ 71100​0002 [04.03.2014].

5   David Cameron, Speech at the London Conference on Libya, London (29. March 2011), available at: http://www.newst​atesm​an.com/2011/03/libya​-help-human​itari​an [04.03.2014]. 6   Guardian, ‘Front: A few steps forward, many back on the long road west to Tripoli’ (22. March 2011), p. 1. 7   Times, ‘Just 30 miles from Tripoli, the defiant town that dares to humiliate Gaddafi’ (7. March 2011), pp. 6–7. 8   Sun, ‘Why 1941 Desert Rats are the key to defeating Mad Dog today’ (2. April 2011), pp. 42–43. 9   Guardian ‘Libya: The rebels gather their sparse forces for the battles ahead’ (1. March 2011), p. 14. 10  Luciana Berger, Statement in the House of Commons, 28.02.2011, available at: http://www.publi​ catio​ns.parli​ament​.uk/pa/cm201​011/cmhan​srd/cm110​228/debte​xt/11022​8-0001.htm#11022​81900​0002 [05.03.2014]. 11   David Cameron, Speech to the UN General Assembly, New York, 22.09.2011, available at: http:// www.newst​atesm​an.com/globa​l-issue​s/2011/09/arab-world​-regio​n-libya​-act [04.03.2014]. 12   The Guardian, ‘Libya: “The fear barrier is broken”: volunteers flock to join the rebels’ drive-in war’ (9. March 2011), p. 16. 13   Guardian, ‘Front: The graveyards are filling up in Misrata’s unexpected war’ (22. April 2011), p. 1. 14   Guardian, ‘Libya: “The fear barrier is broken”’. 15   Cameron, Speech to the UN General Assembly, 22.09.2011. 16   Sun, ‘Gaddafi, you are History’ (24. August 2011), pp. 8–9. 17   Sun, ‘Don’t you know right from wrong?’ (22. October 2011), pp. 6–7. 18   Sun, ‘He’s Buggied Off’ (26. August 2011), pp. 6–7

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Characterization With regard to characterization, the rebel side of the conflict is commonly labelled as ‘revolutionaries’19, ‘pro-freedom rebels’20 or most commonly ‘freedom fighters’21 in both the media and among the political elite which link aspects of emplotment with characterization by including causal motivations and goals underlying the struggle. The individual rebel is characterized not as a professional fighter but as ‘young’22 or teenager’23 ‘civilians’24 who have taken up arms against Gaddafi. ‘The rebel army is mostly ordinary young people, often well educated, who have had enough of their lives being destroyed by a dictator’.25 Emphasizing their civilian character, many of the depictions of the rebels include references to their former occupation such as ‘engineer’26, ‘cashier’27, ‘house decorator’28, ‘student’29 and even an ‘owner of a Liverpool takeaway’30. Similar to many of the audience reading the story the rebel is a normal human being one is able to identify with through similarity. With regard to the physical appearance of the rebel, he is said to be a ‘T-shirt-wearing fighter’31, ‘[w]earing mismatched, second-hand American uniforms, or tracksuits and T-shirts’32. The ‘teacher-turned-fighter’33 rebel has ‘no qualifications to be a soldier‘34 and is by no means an elite fighter but rather characterized as an underdog in the conflict. They are an ‘ill-trained’35 or ‘untrained youngsters hopelessly manning the front’36 who’s ‘weapons handling and marksmanship left a lot to be desired’.37 They are said to be ‘amateur fighters’38 who have a ‘lack of military experience’39 and are

19

  Sun, ‘We beg the West for a no-fly zone before Gaddafi’s jets destroy us all’ (15. March 2011), p. 14.  Peter Bone, Statement in the House of Commons, 19.06.2011, available at: http://www.publi​catio​ ns.parli​ament​.uk/pa/cm201​011/cmhan​srd/cm110​719/debte​xt/11071​9-0001.htm [04.03.2014]. 21   Times, ‘Rebels struggling to flip the power switch’ (25. August 2011), pp. 6–7. 22  Guardian, ‘Front: Libya: „They are professional soldiers. And they are guarding someone”’ (26. August 2011), p. 4. 23   Sun, ‘Gaddafi, you are History’. 24   Guardian, ‘Front: The graveyards are filling up’. 25   Sun, ‘We beg the West’. 26   Times, ‘Expats return from UK for rebel assault on Tripoli’ (2. July 2011), p. 45. 27   Guardian, ‘Front: Libya: “It is a symbolic victory. Gaddafi is still free”’, (24. August 2011), p. 2. 28   Times, ‘The battle of Qasr al-Haj’ (11. June 2011), p. 39. 29   Times, ‘Apache strikes aim to break deadlock’ (6. June 2011), p. 6. 30   Times, ‘Expats return from UK’. 31   Times, ‘Apache strikes aim to break deadlock’. 32   Times, ‘Expats return from UK’. 33   Times, ‘Rebels close in on Gaddafi’ (15. August 2011), p. 1, 8, 9. 34   Sun, ‘Its a buzz fighting Gaddafi’ (10. March 2011), pp. 10–11. 35   Guardian, ‘Front: Blow to Gaddafi as Libyan foreign minister defects’, (31. March 2011), p. 1. 36   Guardian, ‘Front: Britain urges Arab countries to train rebels’ (7. August 2011), p. 1. 37   Times, ‘Expats return from UK’. 38   Times, ‘Rebels close in on Gaddafi’. 39   Guardian, ‘Front: Blow to Gaddafi’. 20

Narratives and the romantic genre in IR: dominant and… Table 1  Elements of a romantic narrative Setting

Characterization

Emplotment

Faraway

Heroic but human

Adventure

Foreign

Courageous

Asymmetrical conflict

Exotic background

Upright

Resistance to the unjust order

Exciting

Honourable

Fight for liberation

Entertaining

Likable

Justice, love

Emotional

Underdog identification

Struggle for an ideal Struggle against the odds

‘ill equipped’40 as they ‘lack the firepower and military discipline’41. They take on a number of the stereotypical features of rebelliousness as the rebel forces are characterized as ‘disorganized’42, ‘poorly’43 or ‘undisciplined’44 and ‘not interested in orders’45. Despite the rebels being are characterized as ‘ordinary Libyans from all walks of life’46, they are also considered ‘brave’47 men in a ‘heroic uprising against Libya’s murderous tyrant Colonel Gaddafi’48. ‘Most of the revolutionaries are not trained soldiers but the spirit and bravery to fight is there’.49 The rebel is said to be ‘daring’50 and ‘fearless’51, who have ‘courage’52 as they are ‘fighting the dictator with their bare hands’53. The reader is able to identify with the rebels not only because of his former occupation but because they are said to be fighting for an understandable cause such as freedom and democracy. They ‘want the sort of freedoms that we take for granted in

40

  Guardian, ‘Road to Benghazi beckons for Gaddafi’ (14. March 2011), p. 17.   Times, ‘Britain and France “using Qatar to arm Libyan rebels”’ (25. June 2011), pp. 16–17. 42   Guardian, ‘Front: Blow to Gaddafi’. 43   Ibid. 44   Guardian, ‘Libya: Rebels: Faltering military campaign puts pressure on leadership’, (4. April 2011), p. 7. 45   Guardian, ‘Libya: “The fear barrier is broken”’ (9. March 2011), p. 16. 46  David Cameron, Statement in the House of Commons, 21.03.2011, available at: http://www.publi​ catio​ns.parli​ament​.uk/pa/cm201​011/cmhan​srd/cm110​321/debte​xt/11032​1-0001.htm#11032​19000​002 [05.03.2014]. 47   Cameron, Speech to the UN General Assembly, New York, 22.09.2011. 48   Sun, ‘We beg the West’. 49   Ibid. 50   Times, ‘Rebels close in on Gaddafi’. 51   Sun, ‘Gaddafi, you are History’. 52   Nicholas Soames, Statement in the House of Commons, 05.09.2011, available at: http://www.publi​ catio​ns.parli​ament​.uk/pa/cm201​011/cmhan​srd/cm110​905/debte​xt/11090​5-0001.htm#11090​54000​001 [04.03.2014]. 53  Ann Clwyd, Statement in the House of Commons, 28.02.2011, available at: http://www.publi​catio​ ns.parli​ a ment​ . uk/pa/cm201​ 0 11/cmhan​ s rd/cm110​ 2 28/debte​ x t/11022 ​ 8 -0001.htm#11022 ​ 8 1900 ​ 0 002 [05.03.2014]. 41

A. Spencer

this country’.54 The revolution involves ‘truly inspiring individuals: doctors, teachers, lawyers and engineers willing to die for their freedom’55 Therefore, ‘we should also pay a tribute to the bravery and resilience of the Libyan people themselves. This has been their revolution and none of it could happened without them’.56 Emplotment Many of the elements indicated in the characterization of the rebels also reappear in the emplotment of the event in Libya as a ‘popular uprising’57 or ‘revolution’58. It is constituted as an asymmetrical conflict in which the righteous weaker rebels are struggling against a stronger and unjust enemy in the form of the Gaddafi Regime which is ‘attacking peaceful protestors’.59 As already indicated in their characterization, the emplotment of the conflict in Libya emphasizes the asymmetrical nature of the conflict in which the ‘rebels were heavily outnumbers and outgunned’.60 The conflict is emplotted as a struggle against the odds in which the rebels only have ‘sparse forces’61 and ‘Colonel Gaddafi’s forces have better weapons’.62 Apart from the asymmetry, the conflict is emplotted as a resistance to an unjust order which is constituted as a ‘brutal’63 and ‘cruel and destructive regime’64 which ‘terrorised its inhabitants’65 and ‘systematically maltreated the civilian population’66 The unjust order is run by a ‘despot’67 or

54  David Cameron, Statement in the House of Commons, 28.02.2011, available at: http://www.publi​ catio​ns.parli​ament​.uk/pa/cm201​011/cmhan​srd/cm110​228/debte​xt/11022​8-0001.htm#11022​81900​0002 [05.03.2014]. 55   Times, ‘Beware. Libya could easily tip over the edge’ (30. August 2011), p. 20. 56   Cameron, Statement in the House of Commons, 05.09.2011. 57   Edward Miliband, Statement in the House of Commons, 05.09.2011, available at: http://www.publi​ catio​ns.parli​ament​.uk/pa/cm201​011/cmhan​srd/cm110​905/debte​xt/11090​5-0001.htm#11090​54000​001 [04.03.2014]. 58  Jo Swinson, Statement in the House of Commons, 05.09.2011, available at: http://www.publi​catio​ ns.parli​ a ment​ . uk/pa/cm201​ 0 11/cmhan​ s rd/cm110​ 9 05/debte​ x t/11090 ​ 5 -0001.htm#11090 ​ 5 4000 ​ 0 01 [04.03.2014]. 59   David Cameron, Speech on the action we are taking will protect the Libyan people, 18.03.2011, available at: http://www.conse​rvati​ves.com/News/Speec​hes/2011/03/David​_Camer​on_Speec​h_to_Scott​ish_ Conse​rvati​ve_Confe​rence​.aspx [04.03.2014]. 60   Times, ‘The battle of Qasr al-Haj’ (11. June 2011), p. 39. 61   Guardian, ‘Libya: The rebels gather their sparse forces for the battles ahead’ (1. March 2011), p. 14. 62   Times, ‘Women and children killed in the bloody battle for Zawiya’ (10. March 2011), pp. 6–7. 63   Cameron, Speech at the London Conference on Libya, London, 29.03.2011. 64   Times, ‘Muammar Gaddafi; Brutal and unpredictable’. 65   Sun, ‘Hit by a Tornado’. 66   Guardian, ‘Libya: Rebel push reveals devastating impact of allied air strikes’ (28. March 2011), p. 4. 67  Tom Brake, Statement in the House of Commons, 18.03.2011, available at: http://www.publi​catio​ ns.parli​ a ment​ . uk/pa/cm201​ 0 11/cmhan​ s rd/cm110​ 3 18/debte​ x t/11031 ​ 8 -0001.htm#11031 ​ 8 5000 ​ 0 007 [05.03.2014].

Narratives and the romantic genre in IR: dominant and…

‘crazed tyrant’68, who is ‘cruelly’69 committing ‘barbaric acts against the Libyan people’.70 The narrative is emplotted as a struggle for a utopian future in which everything will be much better. The people of Libya are said to be fighting for a ‘better future’71 or a ‘peaceful, successful and democratic future’.72 The emplotment involves a struggle for an ideal, a fight for liberation and an illustration of love for a country and its people as rebels are quoted: ‘We love our country. We love each other’.73 The desire for ‘openness’74, ‘freedom’75 and ‘democracy’76 are told to be the understandable cause of the conflict with the Gaddafi regime. The rebels direct speech is quoted: ‘We are just young people who want democracy’77. ‘We just want freedom’78. These values are explicitly linked to British values and are, similar to elements in the characterization of the rebels, a means of understanding and identifying with the righteousness of the struggle for ‘freedoms that people in Britain take for granted’.79 Overall the narrative of rebellion in Libya found in the British media and among the political elite tells a romantic story in an emotional setting in which the rebel is characterized as an young and brave underdog fighting against a brutal and oppressive regime for an ideal such as democracy and freedom.

Alternative yet marginal stories: crimes and human rights violations by rebels While these stories of the romantic rebel who is struggling for noble ideals against an unjust and more powerful order are very much present in both the media and political coverage of the conflict in Libya other, less amicable narratives only exist at the margins despite their potential truthfulness. The following section will briefly illustrate one narrative which tells a story in which rebels are responsible for war crimes and human rights violations during and after the conflict. What is interesting is not only the marginality of this narrative but how it was engaged with and pushed

68

  Sun, ‘Blast Days of Gaddafi’, (29. March 2011), pp. 12–13.   Cameron, Statement in the House of Commons, 21.03.2011. 70  William Hague, Statement in the House of Commons, 30.03.2011, available at: http://www.publi​ catio​ns.parli​ament​.uk/pa/cm201​011/cmhan​srd/cm110​330/debte​xt/11033​0-0001.htm#11033​06200​0003 [05.03.2014]. 71   Cameron, Speech on the action we are taking will protect the Libyan people, 18.03.2011. 72   Cameron, Statement in the House of Commons, 18.03.2011. 73   Guardian, ‘Libya: “The fear barrier is broken”’ (9. March 2011), p. 16. 74   Hague, Statement in the House of Commons, 30.03.2011. 75  John McDonnell, Statement in the House of Commons, 18.03.2011, available at: http://www.publi​ catio​ns.parli​ament​.uk/pa/cm201​011/cmhan​srd/cm110​318/debte​xt/11031​8-0001.htm#11031​85000​0007 [05.03.2014]. 76   Hague, Statement in the House of Commons, 30.03.2011. 77   Sun, ‘Its a buzz fighting Gaddafi’. 78   Sun, ‘Mad Max v Mad Dog’. 79   Cameron, Statement in the House of Commons, 28.02.2011. 69

A. Spencer

to the margins through a strategy of silencing, refuting, ridiculing and presenting the claimed acts as justified or understandable. While it is widely accepted that Gaddafi’s regime is responsible for a large number of crimes, attacks on civilians and human rights violations, stories accusing the rebels of perpetrating such crimes are rare. This does not mean that the rebel side of the conflict simply did not commit such acts, as there are a number of actors which try and emphasize that members of the rebels were in indeed responsible for human rights violations. For example, Amnesty International stated in its report on the conflict in Libya that, although not on the same scale as the Gaddafi regime, members of the opposition ‘have also committed human rights abuses, in some cases amounting to war crimes’.80 Similarly Human Rights Watch tells a story in which ‘[r]ebel forces also committed human rights and humanitarian law violations during the armed conflict’.81 In particular, the Gaddafi’s killing by rebels produced a number of voices in the media which emphasize the brutal and criminal nature of the act82, its implications for the human rights situation in Libya83 and stress that Gaddafi should have been put on trial.84 Many of these stories however are silenced as very few of them are taken up in the media85 or the political debates in parliament. If narratives of human rights violations are mentioned, they are taken up only to refute the truthfulness of the story: ‘All I can say about the opposition forces and the danger of civilian deaths from their activities is that, so far, we have no record of their being engaged in attacks on civilians. For one thing, they have not made frontal attacks on civilian areas and for another, where they have managed to gain territory they have generally been welcomed by the local people’.86 At the same time some of the more critical voices on for example the killing of Gaddafi are ridiculed, attacked and delegitimized: ‘Why all the fuss about who killed Gaddafi? The man who shot him should be given a medal.’87 Interestingly when stories of wrongdoing are mentioned they are emplotted as understandable and justified in the given setting. For example, looting committed by rebels is said to be understandable as the loot is not really stolen; ‘in truth it did not seem much like looting as most of the treasures they carted away were acquired with wealth stolen from the Libyan people’.88 Even when the rebels do loot they are characterized as

80

  Amnesty International, The Battle for Libya. Killings, Disappearances and Torture, 13.09.2011, available at: http://www.amnes​ty.org/en/libra​ry/info/MDE19​/025/2011/en [19.08.2014]. 81   Human Rights Watch, World Report 2012, Country summary on Libya, p. 598, available at: http:// www.hrw.org/sites​/defau​lt/files​/repor​ts/wr201​2.pdf [07.03.2014]. 82   Times, ‘A Squalid Death’ (26. March 20119, p. 2. 83   Guardian, ‘Arab Spring: Gaddafi’s death: Decaying bodies normally repel’ (24. October 2011), p. 3. 84   Sun, ‘What’s now for Libya?’ (24. October 2011), p. 43. 85  For exception see: Times, ‘Rebels tightening grip on Tripoli but the tyrant still eludes them’ (26. August 2011, p. 8. 86   Hague, Statement in the House of Commons, 30.03.2011. 87   Sun, ‘No need to find Gaddafi killer’. 88   Times, ‘The fall of Tripoli’ (24. August 2011), p. 1, 3.

Narratives and the romantic genre in IR: dominant and…

honourable as they give the loot to those who have suffered by the regime: ‘“I am going to give this to my dad as a present”, he [the looter] said, “because he suffered a lot from Gaddafi.”’89 Furthermore, the killing of Gaddafi is said to be justified as ‘[t]he murderous tyrant got the fate he deserved’90: “His death was grotesque and violent. Much as he had lived his life”.91Alternatively, Gaddafi is said to have got off too lightly as ‘[k] illing him on the spot was an easy way out for him’ and that victims ‘felt cheated that the dictator had escaped justice’:92 Other media reports stress that the killing of Gaddafi was a necessary step to ‘help stabilise the position of Libya’s new leaders, particularly if his followers now gave up the fight’.93 For example, David Cameron ‘hailed Gaddafi’s death as a step towards a “strong and democratic future” for the north African country’.94 Some stories even go as far as embedding the killing of Gaddafi into the dominant romantic narrative outlined above in which the person responsible for the death of Gaddafi is not only a killer but an underdog ‘Libyan hero’95 fighting for liberation in an asymmetric conflict: ‘Death came to Muammar Gaddafi, the man who dubbed himself the King of Kings, at the hands of a youth wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap and a T-shirt emblazoned with the word Love’96. Despite the existence of crimes and human rights violation by rebels, these stories remained largely on the margins of the narratives being told about rebellion in Libya. In situations in which these alternative narratives were mentioned, they were silenced, ridiculed and explicitly refuted and others were justified and presented as understandable.

Conclusion The article has illustrated a method of narrative analysis which focused on the narrative elements of setting, characterization and emplotment and has shown how the rebellion against Gaddafi in Libya in 2011 was romanticized in the British newspaper media and among the political elite. Combining insights from literary studies, the article illustrated the process of narrative romanticization by indicating the existence of romantic story elements such as the notion of adventure, asymmetrical conflict, sacrifice as well as emotion and love (for a country). Furthermore, the article has indicated how counter-narratives, which focused on human rights violation by rebels, were marginalized through the strategy of silencing, refuting, ridiculing and justifying. 89

  Ibid.   Sun, ‘Rot in hell with Hitler’ (21. October 2011), p. 8, 9. 91   Sun, ‘Stench of death, flies on blood’ (22. October 2011), p. 8–9. 92   Both quotes from Sun, ‘Rot in hell with Hitler’. 93   Guardian, ‘National: Death of Gaddafi: Path ahead’ (21. October 2011), p. 2. 94   Guardian, ‘Front: Death of a dictator’ (21. October 2011), p. 1. 95   Times, ‘Gaddafi’s killer: “You can have him now”’ (22. October 2011), p. 1, 5. 96   Times, ‘A hundred legends are in the making’ (21. October 2011), pp. 4–5. 90

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While narratives or other discursive structures do not cause certain policy outcomes in a positivist sense, they do open or limit space for political behaviour. They therefore do have policy implications. In the case of the romantic narratives outlines in this article, one is able to point to two kinds of behavioural implications for British governmental policy. Firstly, the romantic narratives of rebellion contribute to legitimization of British military intervention in the Libya against the Gaddafi regime. Telling romantic narratives of the underdog heroic rebels struggling against an unjust and more powerful order for an identifiable ideal such as freedom will contribute to the public support of measures said to help the struggling rebel. The vast majority of opinion polls suggest that the British population was more supportive of British military intervention in Libya than in other conflicts such as Iraq or Afghanistan where romantic rebel narratives are far less evident (Clements 2013). Secondly, the marginalization of the negative counter-narratives also has implications for political behaviour. On the one hand, the romantic story has contributed to western blindness to extremism in Libya and thereby has aided the recruitment of groups such as the Islamic State as well as increased the threat of terrorism in the region. On the other hand, the marginalization of narratives on human rights violations by rebels reduces the necessity of a strong condemnation and sets a bad precedent for the role of human rights in the narrative of post-conflict Libya.

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