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When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF HUMANITIES English Behind Apocalypse The Cultural Legacy of 9/11 by Matthew Stuart Leggatt Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2013 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT HUMANITIES English Doctor of Philosophy BEHIND APOCALYPSE THE CULTURAL LEGACY OF 9/11 by Matthew Stuart Leggatt ‘Part One: 9/11 and the Death of the Capitalist Utopia’ focuses on how 9/11 has been memorialised, mythologised, and mobilised by contemporary culture. It examines a range of cultural materials from literature, film, and architecture, to 9/11 in the media. The section discusses, through a fusion of cultural and political thought, how the War on Terror became the inevitable continuation of the binary rhetoric of good and evil perpetuated since 9/11. Chapter One, entitled ‘Falling Man’, examines the complex relationship between art and 9/11, and the impact of images of those seen falling from the towers, primarily using Don DeLillo’s Falling Man , and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close to discuss the role of censorship after 9/11. The chapter progresses to look at Hollywood’s overt response to 9/11 with World Trade Center and United 93 . Chapter Two: ‘Reflecting Absence’ contains a reading of the 9/11 memorial used as a case study of the preferred narrative of 9/11. The chapter establishes a regressive rhetoric produced after 9/11 and used to fuel support for a more aggressive stance towards foreign policy. In ‘Part Two: The Earth Burns Again: the Culture of Apocalypse in Contemporary Cinema’, I examine the specific case of apocalyptic narratives post 9/11. This is achieved through comparison pieces between late 90s apocalyptic films and those released after 9/11. It develops much of the theory put forward in the first chapter, showing how this can be applied not just to texts linked directly to 9/11, but also to texts about the future. Chapter Three: ‘The Abuse of Apocalypse’ begins with an examination of genre and the place of the apocalyptic narrative. I establish two distinct ‘waves’ and then move on to discuss a fascination with the ‘post’- apocalyptic after 9/11. This is framed by a comparison between 90s apocalyptic film and film post 9/11. Here I address the lone survivor narrative and further discuss the aesthetic differences between the two waves. Chapter Four: ‘You’ve Gotta Have Faith: Issues of Religion and Faith in Post 9/11 Apocalyptic Cinema’, continues by examining the developing theme of religion within these post 9/11 apocalypse movies. This second part of the thesis is more focused on textual analysis, using the theory already discussed to inform a deeper and more specific discussion of the ways in which this movie genre/sub-genre is indicative of the wider issues at stake. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the economic apocalypse which is evident in both the text and filmic versions of Cosmopolis. It places these ideas of an apocalyptic cultural mentality within the contemporary framework of the global financial meltdown, as well as summarises and returns to the main themes of the work, namely ideas about our ability to imagine the future, and the end of ideas of progress in traditional cultural forms. Over the last decade 9/11 has been a popular source for writers of both fiction and non-fiction. The unique contribution this thesis makes to the body of work on 9/11 lies in its examination of primary texts alongside political and cultural theory. Most importantly, the way in which I combine narrative and aesthetic theory with textual analysis to build a narrative of post 9/11 apocalyptic thinking gives an overall framework to an otherwise fractious discourse on the popular imagination post 9/11. CONTENTS ___________________________________________________ Declaration of Authorship Acknowledgements INTRODUCTION 1 PART 1: 9/11 AND CULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DEATH OF THE CAPITALIST UTOPIA Chapter 1: Falling Man The Stockhausen Syndrome 35 The Forgotten Man 49 53 Chapter 2: Reflecting Absence The Memorial 71 Wounded America 75 Conclusions: The End of Ideology 90 117 PART 2: THE CULTURE OF APOCALYPSE IN CONTEMPORARY CINEMA Chapter 3: The Abuse of Apocalypse Cycles and Recycles 127 Godzilla vs. Cloverfield 131 Post… 141 Post 9/11 Apocalypse and the Aesthetics of the Sublime 147 156 Chapter 4: You’ve Gotta Have Faith: Issues of Religion and Faith in Post 9/11 Apocalyptic Cinema 173 Millenarianism versus Nihilism 182 CONCLUSION: UTOPIA – MOVING FORWARD Cosmopolis and the Economic Apocalypse 201 Melancholia – the Reel End of the World 210 220 FILMOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY 225 WEBOGRAPHY 228 234 Declaration Of Authorship I, MATTHEW STUART LEGGATT declare that this thesis and the work presented in it are my own and has been generated by me as the result of my own original research. Behind Apocalypse: The Cultural Legacy of 9/11 I confirm that: 1. This work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at this University; 2. Where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated; 3. Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed; 4. Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work; 5. I have acknowledged all main sources of help; 6. Where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself; 7. Either none of this work has been published before submission, or parts of this work have been published as: [please list references below]: Signed: Date: 01/12/2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly I would like to give my whole hearted thanks to my supervisor Professor Linda Ruth Williams for her guidance and support throughout this process. I always came out of our meetings feeling optimistic and you could always tell when I needed that confidence boost to get me over the line. A big thank you goes to my advisor Dr. James Jordan who has always been there where I needed to talk about absolutely anything. I would like to thank all my friends and family for their inspiration and for, at the very least, keeping me sane. Thanks must also go to the AHRC, without whose funding this PhD thesis may never have come to fruition. A final thanks to all of those I have met over the past three years, at conferences, in cafeterias, and all those who have had to put up with me talking about the End of World. Introduction “We are the middle children of history, raised by television to believe that someday we’ll be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars, but we won’t. And we’re just learning this fact,” Tyler said. “So don’t fuck with us.” 1 ~ Tyler Durden I In David Fincher’s 1999 film Fight Club , based on Chuck Palahniuk’s novel of the same name, Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), the alter ego of a chronic insomniac imprisoned by his small condo life and mundane desk job, amasses an army from the repressed service sector workers driving the US economy, in search of an event which will define the history of his generation. From Tyler’s tortured eloquence comes a cry for arms against the oppression of capitalism, a cry which demands the restart of historical progression in order to recover a lost identity and restore the wasted potential of his over-educated class. The aim of Tyler and his army, ironically named Project Mayhem, is to erase the world debt record by destroying the headquarter buildings of all the major credit card companies simultaneously. The film’s imagery during the dénouement atop the Parker Morris building, 2 which is set to explode, has been 1 Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club , (London: Vintage, 1997), p. 166. 2 Image 1 Fight Club finale. 1 retrospectively empowered by the events of what is, unalterably referred to as, the defining moment of twenty-first century US history: 9/11. 3 On September 11 2001 Tyler Durden’s dream of an epoch-making event was realised. This was no peaceful transition to a space beyond capitalism, however, as envisaged by Durden, whose financial monuments are empty, but a much more violent and brutal incident involving the mass-slaughter of innocent people, not just from the US but from all around the world. Within hours of the World Trade Center’s collapse the day was already being packaged as the moment that “everything changed”. But, ironically, Tyler’s revolution has come and passed with barely a whimper: “We don’t have a great war in our generation, or a great depression, but we do, we have a great war of the spirit.