The judgement of the Symbionese Liberation Army : displaced narratives of 1970s American political violence
Abstract
This thesis outlines the perception of homegrown political violence in
The United States during the 1970s, as personified by the Symbionese Liberation
Army, through a reconstruction and analysis of the critical narratives used to
ascribe meaning to them contemporaneously. Scholarship thus far has failed to
recognize the importance of this group, dismissing their ineffectual actions and
ideology rather than recognizing the broader importance of their cultural
permeation. Although the SLA was informed by juvenile political awareness and
characterized by largely ineffective revolutionary actions, the failure by most
historians of the period to address the form and function of their ubiquitous
public image has contributed to the groundless historical assumption that the
political violence of the early 1970s was no more than the inevitable result of the
personal and political self-indulgences of the 1960s. This misconception has thus
far preempted meaningful analysis of this chapter of unprecedented American
political violence and the American public’s first interaction with political
extremism, articulated through civilian casualties, bombings, kidnapping, and the
co-option of print and broadcast media. This experience, and particularly the way
in which the SLA was portrayed at that time, contributed to the construction of
simplistic dichotomies and vague explanations for political violence that were
used contemporaneously to delegitimize protest by the left and justify the
governmental abuse of civil liberties and have carried through largely unchanged
to public discourse today. A careful analysis of the construction and reception of
the SLA's meaning is therefore essential to a more lucid understanding of the
times. Accordingly, the goal of this thesis is to reconstruct and analyze the
narratives of the SLA in order to understand their role in American culture and
1970s political violence and ultimately to chart their loss of agency and the
devaluation of their meaning in both history and public memory.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Rights
Embargo Date: 2024-11-05
Embargo Reason: Thesis restricted in accordance with University regulations. Print and electronic copy restricted until 5th November 2024
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