SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 AND AMERICAN CULTURE

Summary: Today we will consider the cultural impact of the terrorist attacks that took place on September 11, 2001. Drawing on the work of Michael Schudson, we will examine September 11 as a "cultural flashpoint" that "generated collective, widely shared experiences through which people established, and came to care about a relationship to public discourse and to public action" (Schudson, Watergate in American Memory, 1992). We will consider the basic narrative of what happened on September 11, 2001, using clips from the HBO documentary, In Memoriam: New York City, 9/11/01. Following Schudson, we will also ask what the events of 9/11 and responses to them symbolize about American culture and society in the 21st century.

I. Introduction:

A. Beginning points:

1. a nation divided, culturally and electorally

2. an economy weakened

3. continuing impact of mass media and the Internet on American life

4. confessional culture of the nineties carries forward into the new century

B. President George W. Bush: conciliation and conservatism

II. September 11 as a "cultural flashpoint"

A. narrative of the event

B. What do Americans' responses to 9/11 reveal about out national culture?

1. therapeutic sensibility

a. focus on the personal

b. emphasis on trauma and mourning

i. talk shows

ii. counseling services

iii. guidelines for helping children through the trauma

2. comparison and contrast with the American response to Pearl Harbor

a. conventional terms of the comparison:

i. Pearl Harbor elicited a unified national response

ii. 9/11 elicited a more personalized, mournful response

b. are the terms of comparison overly simplistic?

i. WWII culture animated by tensions between public and private obligation

ii. 9/11 did generate collective energy and resolve

3. Relation of 9/11 to the "culture wars"

a. William Bennett, Why We Fight (2001)

b. Noam Chomsky, 9/11 (2001)

c. Michael J. Lewis, "MOurning Without Meaning" (2002)

d. Lewis's contrast between a "gorgeous mosaic" and a resolute nation-state

4. 9/11 revealed the United States' involvement with a broader world

a. more than 80 nationalities represented among the victims of the attacks

b. global capitalism, cultural imperialism, and resentement against the United States

c. "Jihad vs. McWorld"

5. Gender

6. Popular cultural, artistic, and media responses to 9/11

III. Conclusion:

A. What does America's ongoing response to 9/11 reveal about our common national culture?

B. How should we remember the event?

1. are some cultural responses unacceptable? (Amiri Baraka)

2. how do we remember the horror of the events?

C. The importance of memory: In Memoriam: New York City, 9/11/01

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