The Poetics of Fear: A Human Response to Human Security

Abstract

These words, spoken to Dr. Frankenstein by his spurned creation, are a reminder that to master one’s own fears is to claim the right to choose one’s own way. Th ey once adorned a hand-made poster on my dorm room wall as an undergraduate, and they have stayed with me since. In the process of completing this project they have come to me more than once. As is the case with most first books in academia, this one comes out of my doctoral dissertation. As a dissertation it never quite fit the mold. It was not a review of the literature, followed by a collection of data summarized and com-mented upon. I did not make use of charts, graphs or statistical regressions. I have been told that it did not look like a work of Political Science so much as Philosophy, Classical Studies, or perhaps Communications. And yet I persisted. I would not take no for an answer. Perhaps it did not fit the usual patterns, but the ideas it contained worked. They allowed alternatives to be seen that might otherwise remain occluded. Given the abstract nature of the writing, it was useful in a surprisingly practical way. It was, at least, original.