Presenter Information

Stella Setka, Purdue University

Location

Stewart Center 310

Session Number

Session 25: RELATING TERROR AND VIOLENCE: 9/11, THE HOLOCAUST, AND ECO-TERRORISM

Start Date

10-9-2011 1:30 PM

End Date

10-9-2011 3:00 PM

Abstract

This essay argues that Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America and Art Spiegelman’s In the Shadow of New Towers open up new spaces for reading the trauma of 9/11 not simply as the tragic story of a single day in 2001, but as a traumatic event that shares referents with other catastrophes in history, most notably the Holocaust. Further, the author demonstrates that these works are more concerned with the politicization of 9/11 than they are with the terrorist attacks themselves.

Share

COinS
 
Sep 10th, 1:30 PM Sep 10th, 3:00 PM

Reading 9/11 through the Holocaust in Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America and Art Spiegelman’s In the Shadow of No Towers

Stewart Center 310

This essay argues that Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America and Art Spiegelman’s In the Shadow of New Towers open up new spaces for reading the trauma of 9/11 not simply as the tragic story of a single day in 2001, but as a traumatic event that shares referents with other catastrophes in history, most notably the Holocaust. Further, the author demonstrates that these works are more concerned with the politicization of 9/11 than they are with the terrorist attacks themselves.