(Un)Empathetic Ties with the Other: Perpetrator Analysis of Martin Amis’s The Last Days of Muhammad Atta

Abstract

The paper aims at analysing Martin Amis's short story The Last Days of Muhammad Atta from the theoretical lens of Perpetrator Studies. Amis fictionally portrays his protagonist Muhammad Atta, a real-life perpetrator,
who crashed the second plane to the north tower of the World-Trade Centre. The study critiques the fictional portrayal, subscribing to Perpetrator Studies,by taking into considering the postulates of the theory for both the actual study of perpetrators and their literary projections. The problematic aspects in the literary representations of an actual perpetrator have been pointed out in the analysis. The paper pays particular attention to the ways fictional representation of a real-life perpetrator affects our perception of perpetrators
and perpetration, thereby diminishing or magnifying the gap that already exists in the us and them binary of victims and perpetrators. Despite the call from the academic and literary circles to have empathetic ties with the other (perpetrator) for oscillating the dichotomy between us and them, after gaining a real understanding of the perpetrators in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, analysis of the Amis’s short story suggests that the author ended up utilizing the same representational tropes that have caused the chasm of
misunderstanding in the first place. Instead of establishing empathetic ties with other, by giving a considerate account of Atta’s life, Amis undermines his own effort due to an overarching bias in the portrayal depicted.