Preventing radicalisation through reading fiction How reading North of Dawn or The Lines We Cross can teach adolescents intercultural competence and build resilience against radicalisation

Abstract

The following thesis aims to look at how reading Nuruddin Farah´s North of Dawn and Randa Abdel-Fattah´s The Lines We Cross can create resilience to radicalisation and violent extremism. Building on the concepts of deep reading, vicarious experiences and theories on preventative work, this thesis will show how literature that examines radicalisation in a critical light can show the importance of intercultural competence; a competence believed to be central in resilience to radicalisation. This thesis will also explore how elements of intercultural competence and resilient traits overlap, showing how aspects such as empathy, multiperspectivity and thinking with complexity are central to both. Through the characters in the novels, the adolescent reader should be able to learn intercultural competence vicariously while also being presented with a narrative that is able to compete with the narratives of extremist groups. While this thesis by no means represents a final solution to challenges connected to radicalisation, it should instead be regarded as a suggestion to how teachers in upper- and lower secondary education can contribute to a larger multisectoral effort against radicalisation and violent extremism.