Rhetoric of Ruin: 9/11 in German Literature, Film and Culture
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Rhetoric of Ruin: 9/11 in German Literature, Film and Culture A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of German Studies of the College of Arts and Sciences by Alexandra S. Hagen M.A. University of South Carolina May 2005 Committee Chair: Harold Herzog, PhD Abstract: This dissertation project examines contemporary German cultural products that reference the terrorist attacks of 9/11. In particular, the omnipresent fear of terrorism, the United States’ political involvement in Iraq, the German dissent, as well as its depiction in mass media underscore the importance of the portrayal of 9/11 in contemporary German literature, film, and culture. Key to the analysis is the reflection of the relationship between reality and the political, cultural, and aesthetic representation of the terrorist attacks in German literature, film and media published between September 11, 2001 and the present. I argue that mass media serve as the driving force behind all representation and conclude that the simultaneous broadcasting of media images nullifies the geographical distance between local witnesses in New York City and contemporaries around the world. Rather than fictionally reconstructing 9/11, authors rely on the televised images as a source of information. Hence the immediacy of television supersedes literature as a locus of remembrance. The continuously ambivalent, 200-year long German- American discourse provides a larger framework for the dissertation and its effort to understand representations of the attacks from outside the United States. ii iii Acknowledgements I encountered the notion of Amerika, the savior that came to Germany’s rescue in the immediate aftermath of World War II, from a very young age. Having listened to stories told by my maternal grandmother about how the U.S. saved Germany by giving away Hershey bars, Butterfingers, and Baby Ruths, I imagined the United States to be some kind of Schlaraffenland, the land of milk and honey. Little did I know at the age of five, that this notion was only in my imagination. While growing up, I became fascinated with the impact the United States had on German life and culture. Studying in the United States, however, allowed me to see this relationship from a different perspective. Two graduate courses, led by Dr. Agnes Mueller at the University of South Carolina and by Dr. Todd Herzog at the University of Cincinnati, introduced me to an array of scholarship about the complex relationship between German and American culture from the late 19th century to early 21st century. These two courses sparked my interest in what later was to become my dissertation topic: how the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were represented in German literature, film and, culture. Like many projects, this dissertation and the research conducted to write it would not have been completed if not for the generous financial support of the University of Cincinnati. The Department of German Studies has generously supported my research from the very beginning when I traveled to McGill University to present my first paper at the conference “Representations of North America in German Literature, Film and Culture“ in 2006. The Taft Dissertation Fellowship as well as the University Research Council’s grant allowed me to expand my research and focus solely on my dissertation project. Travel grants awarded by the Taft iv Research Center as well as by Graduate Student Government Association enabled me to present portions of this project at national and international academic conferences. Beyond financial support, I have had the opportunity to work with a number of important mentors during my time at the University of South Carolina and at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Lara Ducate was a valuable resource and always encouraging throughout the entire process. My professors at the University of Cincinnati, especially Dr. Todd Herzog and Dr. Katharina Gerstenberger (now at the University of Utah), a have been crucial to my success in academia so far and have offered me guidance and inspiration beyond any expectations. I am also beyond grateful that Dr. Even Torner and Dr. Valerie Weinstein have agreed to read my dissertation and serve on my committee. I thank them for the patience and tolerance. Also, many thanks to Dr. Margaret Hansen and the Graduate School for allowing me to finish this project this academic year. I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to my colleagues/friends, Deborah Page and Dr. Todd Heidt, who have been eager to critically engage my scholarship, helped me when needing an energy boost or motivation, have collaborated on or are currently working with me on projects and panels, or all of the above. Most importantly, I am grateful to my mom, Hildegard Hagen, whose support and love for me was ineffable. I am so sorry that you did not live long enough to experience my success which I owe to you. I love you so much! v INTRODUCTION A New Body of Literature This dissertation examines German literary and filmic responses in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001.1 The terrorist attacks are considered a national trauma to the United States, a global media event, and as such function as an caesura at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Particularly, the images of the falling towers and its news coverage have left an indelible mark and have spurred waves of fear that are still omnipresent today and are an inherent part of Bilder des Terrors2 or a Bilderpolitik in Zeiten von Krieg und Terror.3 September 11 prompted a series of military invasions - the so-called “war on terror“4 - to Afghanistan and to Iraq, which have not been completely resolved and influence global politics to the present day. Still riddled with conflict, the attacks provide a nexus of fields of history, politics and visual studies. The date 9/11/01 effectively ended a time period that was characterized by the collapse of the confrontation between East and West and heralded a new era in the beginning of the twenty-first century which is characterized by globalization and its world-wide conflicts. Responses in German literature and film are at the center of this project. All chosen texts have been published within the first ten years of the new millennium. Ever since the terrorist 1 The following terms, 9/11, Nine Eleven, and September 11 reference the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2011 and will be used henceforth interchangeably. The date serves as a collective cipher for the attacks. The Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache even chose the date as their word of the year at the end of 2001. 2 See Beuthner/Buttler/Fröhlich/Weichert. Eds. Bilder des Terrors - Terror der Bilder? Krisenberichterstattung am und nach dem 11. September. 3 See Linda Hentschel. Ed. Bilderpolitik im Zeiten des Terrors. Medien, Macht und Geschlechterverhältnisse. 4 This term first used by former President G.W. Bush on 20 September 2001. This term has been used by the western media to describe the political, legal and conceptual struggle against organizations and regimes accused of supporting terrorism. !1 attacks of 9/11 with its media broadcast, fear and uncertainty have returned to public center stage. New political rhetoric as well as intensive domestic and international debates regarding security and public safety have dominated over the last 15 years. In order to record these cultural products which have been initiated by the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and its global aftermath, this dissertation examines novels, novellas, essays and films, published between 2001-2010, and investigates common themes, motifs, and narrative strategies within these texts. Current Research Research regarding the topic of Nine Eleven can be found in many different disciplines. In the field of communication or media studies, researchers think of the terrorist attacks as a case of extreme “Krisenkommunikation“ (Bilder des Terrors - Terror der Bilder? 74) as well as a domestic and global media event. While in the field of political science, 9/11 is viewed as a phenomenon: a new form of transnational terrorism. It is also considered a new beginning in asymmetric warfare: a term which describes a conflict in which “the resources of two belligerents differ in essence and in the struggle, interact and attempt to exploit each other's characteristic weaknesses. Such struggles often involve strategies and tactics of unconventional the weaker combatants attempting to use strategy to offset deficiencies in quantity or quality.“5 Particularly, strategic image placement by terrorists and the uses of images within a society highly susceptible to them has become crucial to the interdisciplinary field of visual studies.6 5 See Robert Tomes, “Relearning Counterinsurgency Warfare.“ 6 See Paul Gerhard, Bilder des Krieges - Krieg der Bilder. Die Visualisierung des modernen Krieges and Karen Engele, Seeing Ghosts. 9/11 and the Visual Imagination. !2 There are also German publications on the aesthetic representations on 9/11. All of these are anthologies and interdisciplinary by nature. Narrative des Entsetzens (2004), Nine Eleven: Ästhetische Verarbeitungen des 11. September 2001 (2008) and 9/11 als eine kulturelle Zäsur (2009) bring together attempts to investigate the topic from different viewpoints, i.e. literature, film, popular culture and visual arts. These essay collections examine mechanisms and strategies of 9/11’s cultural meaning and characterize the attacks primarily as a media event and a symbolic attack on the western world whose impact produced immediate discussions on this subject. Furthermore, Heinz-Peter Preußler and Matteo Galli investigate aesthetic representations of 9/117 against the backdrop of Germany’s complex post-war history with domestic terrorism.