Homeland, “Grace” (1.02).
I am presenting a paper at the Images of Terror, Narratives of (In)security: Literary, Artistic and Cultural Responses conference after lunch. It is called “The Terror of Control: Surveillance and Imperialism in Homeland”. Here is the abstract:
The American television series Homeland (2011 -) dramatically explores the impact of US foreign policy and, in particular, the effect and response to the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. The CIA operative Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) condenses the paranoia resulting from this attack. Carrie’s distrust regarding Sergeant Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis), an Al Qaeda prisoner of war, who experienced the force imposed by the US army in the world, is accompanied by a feeling of loss of control, a fear of interpretation mistakes, and a continuous insecurity. This paper will focus on how this televisual work reveals the proliferation of eyes and ears of the American intelligence services in the US and beyond its physical borders. The portrait that Homeland provides has a self-reflective character, showing agents as spectators of the scenes that the television spectators also see and hear, whether set in public or private spaces. As Giorgio Agamben says, the surveillance apparatus transforms all spaces into the inside of a huge prison. The act of permanently and unlimitedly surveilling that is unveiled in the series thus serves as demonstration of an imperialist power. This power has a monopoly on the last observation, one that surpasses all other observers, and tries to control all potential movements in order to read them and make sure that a new terrorist attack does not happen.
