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Performing Remembrances of 9/11 Martina Karels PhD The University of Edinburgh 2017 Declaration This is to declare that the work contained within has been composed by me and is entirely my own work. No part of this thesis has been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. Martina Karels Edinburgh, 30 June 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... i LAY SUMMARY ............................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii Prologue ..................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1. Remembering 9/11 ................................................................................ 17 Chapter 2. Memory as Performance ........................................................................ 43 2.1 Collective Memory is Social ......................................................................... 46 2.2 Performance is Doing ................................................................................... 59 2.3 Public Remembrance is Performed .............................................................. 66 Chapter 3. Performing Ethnography ........................................................................ 84 3.1 Ethnography and Performance .................................................................... 87 3.2 Doing Ethnography ...................................................................................... 94 3.3 Writing Ethnography .................................................................................. 111 Chapter 4. At the Memorial: Family, Tourists and Locals ..................................... 115 4.1 Lena ............................................................................................................ 116 4.2 Frederick and Mabel .................................................................................. 129 4.3 Oliver .......................................................................................................... 140 Chapter 5. Remembering in Motion: Commemorative Walks and Runs ............. 151 5.1 Father Mychal Judge and Stephen Siller .................................................... 152 5.2 Dramatizing Sacrifice, Heroes and Saints ................................................... 163 5.3 (Re)enacting, Affecting and (Re)Membering ............................................. 174 Chapter 6. The Anniversary: Mourners, Truthers and Rememberers .................. 188 6.1 Setting the Scene ....................................................................................... 189 6.2 Performing Official Public Memory ............................................................ 196 6.3 Performing Vernacular Public Memory ...................................................... 207 Chapter 7. Reflections of Remembering ................................................................ 225 Epilogue .…… ........................................................................................................... 246 Appendix 1. Map of names arranged around the 9/11 memorial .......................... 249 Appendix 2. Map of memorial district .................................................................... 250 Appendix 3. Route-map, Father Mychal Judge 9/11 Walk of Remembrance ......... 251 Appendix 4. Route-map, Tunnel to Towers 5K Run & Walk ................................... 252 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................ 253 TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1. The 9/11 Memorial – walking the memorial Figure 2. Entrance to the memorial and crowd control Figure 3. Donation tent Figure 4. Post-donation tent and towards the canyon of scaffolding Figure 5. The blue tarped fence Figure 6. Inside the canyon and towards security check Figure 7. Rules and Regulations Figure 8. 1 WTC aka the Freedom Tower Figure 9. Symmetry Figure 10. Inside the memorial plaza and towards the corner of the South Pool Figure 11. Cluster-point at the south-west corner of the South Pool Figure 12. The waterfalls of the 9/11 memorial Figure 13. The memorial at night Figure 14. Water basin underneath the name parapets Figure 15. Family members making a rubbing of a name Figure 16. Flowers left at the memorial Figure 17. The museum pavilion Figure 18. Construction near the North Pool Figure 19. Information sign at the memorial plaza Figure 20. The Survivor Tree in autumn Figure 21. A birthday rose Figure 22. Sign explaining birthday roses Figure 23. Cluster-point at South Pool on 12 September 2013 Figure 24. Visitor crouching for motif Figure 25. Visitor stretching for motif Figure 26. Viewing viewfinder Figure 27. Prayer stop at Father Mychal’s walk Figure 28. Firefighters carrying portraits at the Tunnel to Towers run (photo by Sgt. Caleb Gomez, licenced for public use) Figure 29. Poster carried at Father Mychal’s walk Figure 30. Soldiers emerging from the tunnel (photo by Sgt. Caleb Gomez, licenced for public use) Figure 31. Runners inside the tunnel (photo by Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic) Figure 32. Truther press conference Figure 33. Point Thank You Figure 34. The memorial in 2017: An open, urban park Figure 35. Visitors in line to see the 9/11 Museum Figure 36. Gift-shop in the memorial plaza Figure 38. 1 WTC and the open memorial plaza ABSTRACT The attacks of 11 September 2001 have had a profound impact for many, altering lives, perceptions, politics and policies. The last decade saw the construction of numerous memorials commemorating the events across the United States. Most prominent is the National 9/11 Memorial in New York City at Ground Zero. Highly contested in its planning and building stages, the memorial site was designed to be a national symbol of mourning, remembrance and resiliency, and has since become one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions. This thesis casts the matter of memorialising 9/11 as a performance of remembering. It utilises an analytical frame that draws from theoretical resources of collective memory and performance studies to examine how and by whom public remembrances of the event are framed, performed and maintained. Theories of social remembering render it an active process. A performance lens used analytically allows for a recognition of commemorative practices not as a mode of representation, but rather as a doing, (en)acting and interacting in the moment. By understanding public remembrance as performance, this thesis explores the implications of thinking about public memory in those terms. Through ethnographic methods the research unpacks the doing of public memory in three scenarios, each with their own setting and cast of characters, and interprets how, if and when individuals subscribe to the public and/or official memory of the events being memorialised. The first is set at the 9/11 memorial. Although the performances at the memorial site occur in an institutionalised, scripted and choreographed environment, the bodily (en)acting of and at the site can shift complex boundaries and commemorative narratives. The second provides the example of commemorative walking/ running events as performed remembering. These public processions are ritual-like (re)enactments that solidify and reaffirm the politicised national commemorative master narrative of 9/11. Lastly, the annual ritual of commemoration on the anniversary of 9/11 highlights and intensifies the separation of official and vernacular public memory and shows how in both settings organisers and actors utilise embodied performance strategies to gain or regain visibility in the public sphere. i LAY SUMMARY The attacks of 11 September 2001 have had a profound impact for many, altering lives, perceptions, politics and policies. The last decade saw the construction of numerous memorials commemorating the events across the United States. Most prominent is the National 9/11 Memorial in New York City at Ground Zero. Highly contested in its planning and building stages, the memorial site was designed to be a national symbol of mourning, remembrance and resiliency, and has since become one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions. This thesis views the memorialising of 9/11 as a performance of remembering. It draws from theoretical resources of collective memory and performance studies to examine how and by whom public remembrances of the event