[Discussion] CFP: Representing 9/11 (3/11/05; MLA '05)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

Representing 9/11 (Special Session MLA '05)

The attacks of September 11, 2001 have been heralded as the end,
variously, of the twentieth century, postmodernism, narcissism, and
irony. This panel seeks to examine, with the benefit of more than three
years' perspective, the accuracy of these claims. In what ways has
9/11-especially when viewed through the perspective of the resulting
US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq-altered our sense of what is
representable and how catastrophe in particular can be represented? How
have representations of 9/11 affirmed or challenged the positions of
eyewitness, victim, and/or perpetrator? To what extent have they
confirmed or undermined familiar categories, genres, and notions of
trauma and loss? What tropes predominate in representations of 9/11 and
what do they reveal about strategies for mourning, the domestication of
trauma, or the category of the incommensurate? This panel seeks to
bring together a range of responses to 9/11, including the literary,
oral, visual, documentary, ephemeral, etc.

Abstract and c.v. to Ann Keniston at keniston@unr.edu by 3/11.


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