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Ethical and Cultural Constructions of 9/11 in American Fiction

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Ethical and Cultural Constructions of 9/11 in American Fiction Trauma and Beyond: Ethical and Cultural Constructions of 9/11 in American Fiction by Pamela Mansutti A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfillment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2012 ©Pamela Mansutti 2012 AUTHOR'S DECLARATION I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii Abstract My dissertation focuses on a set of Anglo-American novels that deal with the events of 9/11. Identifying thematic and stylistic differences in the fiction on this topic, I distinguish between novels that represent directly the jolts of trauma in the wake of the attacks, and novels that, while still holding the events as an underlying operative force in the narrative, do not openly represent them but envision their long-term aftermath. The first group of novels comprises Lynne Sharon Schwartz’s The Writing on the Wall (2005), Don DeLillo’s Falling Man (2007) and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005). The second one includes Lorrie Moore’s A Gate at the Stairs (2009), John Updike’s Terrorist (2006) and Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland (2008). Drawing on concepts from trauma theory, particularly by Cathy Caruth and Dominick LaCapra, and combining them with the ethical philosophies of Levinas and Heidegger, I argue that the constructions of 9/11 in Anglo- American fiction are essentially twofold: authors who narrate 9/11 as a tragic human loss in the city of New York turn it into an occasion for an ethical dialogue with the reader and potentially with the “Other,” whereas authors who address 9/11 as a recent sociopolitical event transform it into a goad toward a bitter cultural indictment of the US middle-class, whose ingrained inertia, patriotism and self-righteousness have been either magnified or twisted by the attacks. Considering processes of meaning-making, annihilation, ideological reduction and apathy that arose from 9/11 and its versions, I have identified what could be called, adapting Peter Elbow’s expression from pedagogical studies, the “forked” rhetoric of media and iii politics, a rhetorical mode in which both discourses are essentially closed, non-hermeneutic, and rooted in the same rationale: exploiting 9/11 for consensus. On the contrary, in what I call the New-Yorkization of 9/11, I highlighted how the situatedness of the public discourses that New Yorkers constructed to tell their own tragedy rescues the Ur-Phaenomenon of 9/11 from the epistemological commodification that intellectual, mediatic and political interpretations forced on it. Furthermore, pointing to the speciousness of arguments that deem 9/11 literature sentimental and unimaginative, I claim that the traumatic literature on the attacks constitutes an example of ethical practice, since it originates from witnesses of the catastrophe, it represents communal solidarity, and it places a crucial demand on the reader as an empathic listener and ethical agent. Ethical counternarratives oppose the ideological simplification of the 9/11 attacks and develop instead a complex counter-rhetoric of emotions and inclusiveness that we could read as a particular instantiation of an ethics of the self and “Other.” As much as the 9/11 “ethical” novels suggest that “survivability” in times of trauma depends on “relationality” (J. Butler), the “cultural” ones unveil the insensitivity and superficiality of the actual US society far away from the site of trauma. The binary framework I use implies that, outside of New York City, 9/11 is narrated neither traumatically (in terms of literary form), nor as trauma (in terms of textual fact). Consequently, on the basis of a spatial criterion and in parallel to the ethical novels, I have identified a category of “cultural” fiction that tackles the events of 9/11 at a distance, spatially and conceptually. In essence, 9/11 brings neither shock, nor promise of regeneration iv to these peripheral settings, except for Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland, a story in which we are returned to a post-9/11 New York where different ethnic subjects can re-negotiate creatively their identities. The cultural novels are ultimately pervaded by a mode of tragic irony that is unthinkable for the ethical novels and that is used in these texts to convey the inanity and hubris of a politically uneducated and naïve America – one that has difficulties to point Afghanistan on a map, or to transcend dualistic schemes of value that embody precisely Bush’s Manichaeism. The potential for cultural pluralism, solidarity and historical memory set up by the New York stories does not ramify into the America that is far away from the neuralgic epicenter of historical trauma. This proves that the traumatizing effects and the related ethical calls engendered by 9/11 remain confined to the New York literature on the topic. v Acknowledgements Throughout these years at Waterloo, I was fortunate to enjoy the guidance, assistance, support, and friendship of many without whom this work would not have taken shape. Here, I hope to acknowledge and thank most of them. First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Kevin McGuirk, for his continuous insight and caring. His invaluable suggestions at difficult times have contributed a lot towards the success of this thesis. I do not think my accomplishments would have been possible without his constant support and timely feedback and I am forever grateful to him for letting me pursue my research under his guidance. Next, my warmest thanks go to Profs. Andrew McMurry and Marcel O’Gorman for having accepted to be part of this project and offering their expertise – and Prof. O’Gorman especially for taking some time off his busy schedule to peruse my dissertation and serve on the defense committee at the last moment. A special thanks goes to Prof. David Jarraway from the University of Ottawa for producing an exciting and stimulating report on my dissertation, which has contributed to illuminate many points of it and to suggest future avenues of research. I also wish to thank the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Waterloo for giving me the opportunity to enter their PhD program and work in a first-class academic environment, making me feel deeply valued as a person and as a scholar. Here, I was also privileged to meet many exceptional peers and colleagues, most of all Craig Love and Danila Sokolov, who shared with me enlightening conversations and warm words of comfort in moments of anxiety, as well as genuine bouts of humor in front of vi a drink. A special acknowledgment goes to both of them. Finally, this has been an amazing experience for me, one that took place very far away from home, therefore I am exceptionally grateful to my friends from Italy Elena and Emanuele for their generous friendship here in Waterloo, and to Leonardo, whose love and passionate encouragement made me believe in me more than I have ever did. I thank Monica Stellin for being such a strong ally of mine throughout this time in Canada and for inspiring me with her own unquestionable knowledge and elegance. Daniela Daniele continues to be an outstanding example of an academic for me and she still indirectly informs my work ethics and my thoughts in the field of American Literature. My gratitude rests with Rosanna Barborini and all my family and friends from Udine, who have been constantly on my side, providing the moral support they knew I needed throughout this time. Note: chapters Seven, Eight and Nine are expanded and revised versions of articles published in Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture (11.2) 2011, and Altre Modernità (Special Issue 2011). vii Dedication All’umanista viii Table of Contents AUTHOR'S DECLARATION ................................................................................................. ii Abstract .................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. vi Dedication .............................................................................................................................. viii Table of Contents ..................................................................................................................... ix Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1. September 11, 2001: intellectual nihilism and the forked rhetoric of media and politics ....................................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 2. What Public Discourse after 9/11? Positioning Trauma in New York City ......... 26 Chapter 3. On the Relationship between Trauma and Ethics in 9/11 Fiction ......................... 45 Chapter 4. Twinned Bodies, Ethical “Faces” and the Politics of Language in Lynne Sharon Schwartz’s The Writing on the Wall (2005) ........................................................................... 69 Chapter 5. Numbness, Agency and Missed Catharsis in Don DeLillo’s Falling Man (2007) .............................................................................................................................................
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