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Sound, Interrogation, Torture: John le Carré and the Audible State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2023

Allan Hepburn
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Abstract

While completing his national service from 1951 to 1952, John le Carré served as an intelligence corps officer whose duties included the interrogation of refugees; as a member of MI5 and MI6 between 1958 and 1963, he interrogated defectors from Soviet bloc countries to test their sincerity or duplicity. In Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, Smiley's People, The Secret Pilgrim, The Mission Song, and le Carré's other novels, interrogation scenes contribute to the total soundworld of the audible state. As a way to gather information through extorted speech, interrogation occurs in extraterritorial nonplaces or undisclosed, deniable locations. Drawing on historical documents, this essay positions interrogation in terms of torture, human rights, and the capacity of the state to inflict harm or to extend protection to individuals under its authority. In le Carré's novels, characters not only listen like states—comprehensively, omnisciently—but also begin to think like states.

Type
Essay
Information
PMLA , Volume 138 , Issue 2 , March 2023 , pp. 290 - 305
Copyright
Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Modern Language Association of America

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