Prospectus

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Working Through 9/11: Literature, Film, and Memorial Culture

Course
2017-2018

Admission requirements

The course Working Through 9/11: Literature, Film, and Memorial Culture is intended for students from a limited number of programmes. Because of the limited capacity available for each programme, all students who will enroll are placed on a waiting list. Students in the MA program in North American Studies (NAS) will have priority. The definite admission (by August 25) will be made according to the position on the waiting list and the number of places that will be available after the North American Studies students have been placed. In total there is room for 25 students in the seminar; the estimated number of NAS students who will follow the course is about 20.

The definite admission (by August 25) will be made according to the position on the waiting list and the number of students from each programme.

Description

The terrorist attacks in France, Turkey, Los Angeles, Germany and elsewhere, as well as the so-called refugee crisis of 2015 have given new relevance and even urgency to the main subject of this course: a critical investigation of the literary and cultural response to what is (controversially) called “9/11” and other acts of terrorism. Aiming to both study and contribute to critical and theoretical debates about terrorism, this interdisciplinary course will explore the ways in which recent novels and films reflect on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2011, and their aftermath, and to what extent they succeed in challenging “us versus them” political discourses and Orientalist stereotypes—both of which have only become intensified since the most recent terrorist attacks. Drawing on theories of trauma and memory, we’ll study the often innovative and intermedial literary strategies and cinematographic techniques writers and film makers use to reflect on post-9/11 political discourse and the so-called War on Terror. Besides U.S. writers like Don DeLillo, Art Spiegelman, Amy Waldman, and Kevin Powers, we’ll also read novels by Mohsin Hamid and Nadeem Aslam, which critically interrogate U.S. exceptionalist political discourse and place terrorism in a historical, transnational, and postcolonial perspective. Among the films we’ll discuss are the Naudet brothers’ 9/11, Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, Alain Brigand’s 11/09/01, Gavin Hood’s Rendition, Chris Morris’s Four Lions, and Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty. Finally, we’ll take a critical look at the contentious history of the memorialization of 9/11 at “Ground Zero,” parodied in Waldman’s novel The Submission. Studying both the political mobilization and (following Judith Butler) the ethics of trauma, this course aims to challenge students to think “through and beyond terror” (Boehmer 2010).

Course objectives

This course offers an interdisciplinary approach to the cultural response to the 9/11 attacks in literature, film, and memorialization practices and aims to:

  • develop students’ analytical and critical skills through in-depth reading of literary texts and films related to 9/11 and (counter)terrorism in general, which will be studied in their historical and cultural contexts;

  • give insight into the central issues in ongoing critical and theoretical debates about the cultural response to 9/11 and (counter)terrorism, particularly the notion of U.S. exceptionalism, the discursive construction of (trans)national, cultural, racialized and gendered identities, migration, (neo-)orientalism, and multiculturalism;

  • introduce students to and develop a critical understanding of trauma theory and memory studies and their relevance to the novels, films, this courses and memory culture under discussion.

More generally this course also aims to:

  • develop students’ skills to conduct independent research and to formulate clear research questions and a viable thesis statement, taking into account the theories and method of the field;

  • develop students’ oral and written communication and other academic skills through in-class discussion and group presentation, a review essay, an essay proposal and a research essay, respectively;

  • develop students’ ability to cooperate with other students in preparing an in-class group presentation;

  • develop students’ ability to provide constructive feedback to and formulate criticism of the work of other students and the ability to evaluate the value of such criticism and feedback on one’s own work and incorporate it.

(ResMA only): the student has the ability to engage with and actively contribute to complex theoretical debates.

Timetable

See timetable.

Mode of instruction

Seminar.

Course load

Total course load 10 ec x 28 hours = 280 hours

  • Study of compulsory literature and film screening: 100 hours;

  • Assignment(s): 10 hours;

  • Tutorials: 40 hours;

  • Group presentation: 30 hours;

  • Research essay: 100 hours.

Assessment method

Assessment

  • oral presentation (20%) and participation (10%);

  • short writing assignment (10%);

  • essay proposal and research essay (c. 4000-4500 words; 60%).

Weighing

The final grade for the course is established by determining the weighted average.

Resit

If the final grade is insufficient, only the research essay can be rewritten.

Exam review

How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.

Blackboard

Blackboard will be used for specific information about (components of) the course, such as links to recommended critical and theoretical articles, websites, discussion questions, presentation and essay topics, and academic writing materials.

Reading list

  • Don DeLillo, Falling Man (Scribner);

  • Art Spiegelman, In the Shadow of No Towers (Pantheon);

  • Amy Waldman, The Submission (Windmill or Picador);

  • Kevin Powers, The Yellow Birds (Little Brown);

  • Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Harvest);

  • Nadeem Aslam, The Wasted Vigil (Vintage International);

  • a number of political speeches and critical and theoretical texts will be made accessible on Blackboard;

  • The assigned films will be screened, but can also be watched at home.

Registration

Via uSis.

Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs

Not applicable.

Remarks

None.

Contact

Mw. Dr. J.C. (Joke) Kardux