AMERICAN CULTURE BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

Summary: Today we will continue our contemplation of the cultural impact of 9/11. We will watch part of the HBO documentary, In Memoriam: New York City, 9/11/01, and we will contemplate some of the cultural issues that the terrorist attacks and subsequent social and political developments have raised. Among the issues we will discuss is the meaning of memory: What do we remember about particular watershed events, and why? What do we forget? We will use this question as a segue to a broader contemplation of cultural events and themes addressed throughout the semester. We will also briefly discuss the format and expectations of the take-home final exam.

I. Introduction: 9/11 and the Meaning of Memory

A. In Memoriam: New York City, 9/11/01

B. The importance of remembrance

C. The dialectic of past and present: drawing on the memory of September 11, 2001 as a means of moving forward

D. Various cultural responses to 9/11

II. Remembering American Culture, 1920-2001

A. Mass culture

1. Do mass-mediated cultural forms reinforce the dominant ideology?

2. Or are they rather multiaccentual, open to multiple interpretations and uses by their audience?

3. What is the relationship between the producers and consumers of mass cultural forms?

4. Mass culture and September 11

B. Cultural diversity and the American experience

1. Impact of race, class, ethnicity, generation, sexuality, gender, region

2. How do we reconcile cultural diversity with the imperative of national unity?

3. Lewis's "gorgeous mosaic" versus the "resolute nation-state"

C. Relation of self and community in American cultural formation

1. Competing efforts to define the American nation

2. Shifting boundaries of public and private in modern American culture

3. Influence of technologies of mass-mediation on the public/private divide

4. Relation to September 11:

a. mass-mediated confessional culture

b. September 11 and the contested meaning of patriotism

D. The benefits and challenges of juxtaposing a variety of cultural forms

1. We have not honed in on a single cultural form or genre, nor have we applied a single set of reading strategies to our study of American cultural texts

2. Instead, we have pursued an interdisciplinary approach and studied a range of cultural texts

3. What can we learn by applying a common set of cultural questions and analytic criteria to a range of genres and texts?

4. Multiple perspectives and cultural resources for contemplating the impact of September 11

III. Conclusion: The Meaning of Memory -- September 11 in Broader Cultural Perspective