The 9/11 Novel
The terror attacks of September 11, 2001 have widely been described as the inversion of the relation of fiction and reality. The real-time nature of the attacks, combined with their similarity to a disaster movie, challenge the medium of the novel, which has traditionally been viewed as a site where the relations between the mind and the world, fantasy and reality, fiction and history, can be worked out. Keeping these issues in mind, we will read novels written about and in the wake of 9/11, tracing the evolution from an initial discourse of trauma and tremendum to a critical engagement with memory and history in an international context.
Students will be responsible for leading class discussion, composing an abstract for the final paper, and a final paper.
The terror attacks of September 11, 2001 have widely been described as the inversion of the relation of fiction and reality. The real-time nature of the attacks, combined with their similarity to a disaster movie, challenge the medium of the novel, which has traditionally been viewed as a site where the relations between the mind and the world, fantasy and reality, fiction and history, can be worked out. Keeping these issues in mind, we will read novels written about and in the wake of 9/11, tracing the evolution from an initial discourse of trauma and tremendum to a critical engagement with memory and history in an international context.
Students will be responsible for leading class discussion, composing an abstract for the final paper, and a final paper.
- Teacher: Naomi Mandel