Admission requirements
None.
Description
In the approach to the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the literary and cultural response to what we’ve come to call “9/11” has been the subject of much critical debate. Aiming to contribute to this debate, this course will begin by exploring the ways in which novels and stories by recent American writers such as Jonathan Saffran Foer, Don DeLillo, Deborah Eisenberg, Joseph O’Neill, and Jonathan Franzen reflect on the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and/or reimagine life in the aftermath of these events. Drawing on theories of trauma and memory, we’ll study the sometimes innovative and intermedial literary strategies these and other writers use to represent life “in the shadow of no towers” (to borrow the title of Art Spiegelman’s graphic narrative), as well as the relationship between aesthetics and politics and between the personal and the political in post-9/11 literature and in films such as The Road and Fahrenheit 9/11. We’ll also read novels by immigrant writers such as Monica Ali, Mohsin Hamid, and Lan Cao that interrogate the re-emergence of exceptionalist political discourse and Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” thesis in the wake of 9/11. Finally, we’ll take a critical look at the culture of commemoration surrounding 9/11, from the memorial walls of photographs and poems in the immediate aftermath to ongoing debates about an appropriate memorial for “Ground Zero.” Throughout the course, we will ask ourselves if there is such a genre as post-9/11 fiction and film and what the politics of such a genre might be.
Course objectives
This course aims to develop students’ analytical and critical skills through in-depth reading of contemporary literary texts and a few films in their historical and cultural contexts. This course will also introduce students to theories on trauma, memory, and memorialization.
Timetable
The timetable will be available by June 1st at www.hum.leidenuniv.nl/engels.
Mode of instruction
Two-hour seminar per week.
Assessment method
Oral presentation and discussion (30%) and essay (c. 4000 words; 70%).
Blackboard
This course is supported by Blackboard.
At least two weeks before the course starts, the Blackboard site will be open for self-enrollment. There you can find the course syllabus.
Reading list
Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Penguin)
Art Spiegelman, In the Shadow of No Towers (Pantheon)
Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón, The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation (Hill and Wang)
Don DeLillo, Falling Man (Scribner)
Joseph O’Neill, Netherland (Harper Perennial)
Jonathan Franzen, Freedom (HarperCollins)
Dave Eggers, Zeitoun (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin)
Monica Ali, Brick Lane (Black Swan)
Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Harvest)
Lan Cao, Monkey Bridge (Penguin)
Deborah Eisenberg, Twilight of the Superheroes (Picador)
Recommended: David Simpson, 9/11: The Culture of Commemoration (University of Chicago Press)
Registration
Students should register through uSis.
Contact information
Departmental Office English Language and Culture, P.N. van Eyckhof 4, room 102C. Tel. 071 5272144; mail: english@hum.leidenuniv.nl.
Coordinator of Studies Master: Ms. K. van der Zeeuw-Filemon, P.N. van Eyckhof 4, room 103C.
Remarks
No remarks.