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This edited collection aims to respond to dominant perspectives on twenty-first-century war by exploring how the events of 9/11 and the subsequent Wars on Terror are represented and remembered outside of the US framework. Existing critical coverage ignores the meaning of these events for people, nations and cultures apparently peripheral to them but which have - as shown in this collection - been extraordinarily affected by the social, political and cultural changes these wars have wrought. Adopting a literary and cultural history approach, the book asks how these events resonate and continue to show effects in the rest of the world, with a particular focus on Australia and Britain. It argues that such reflections on the impact of the Wars on Terror help us to understand what global conflict means in a contemporary context, as well as what its representative motifs might tell us about how nations like Australia and Britain perceive and construct their remembered identities on the worldstage in the twenty-first century. In its close examination of films, novels, memoir, visual artworks, media, and minority communities in the years since 2001, this collection looks at the global impacts of these events, and the ways they have shaped, and continue to shape, Britain and Australia's relation to the rest of the world.
List of contents
1. Memory and the Wars on Terror; Jessica Gildersleeve and Richard Gehrmann.- 2. False Memories and Professional Culture: The Australian Defence Force, the Government and the Media at War in Afghanistan; Kevin Foster.- 3. The Limitations of Memory and the Language of the War on Terror in Australia, 2001-2003; Amanda Laugesen.- 4. Enemies of the State(s): Cultural Memory, Cinema, and the Iraq War; Richard Gehrmann.- 5. Remembering the Warriors: Cultural Memory, the Female Hero and the 'Logistics of Perception' in Zero Dark Thirty; Christa van Raalte.- 6. Remembering the First World War after 9/11: Pat Barker's Life Class and Toby's Room; Jessica Gildersleeve.- 7. Novel Wars: David Malouf and the Invention of the Iliad; Kezia Whiting.- 8. In Extremis: Apocalyptic Imaginings in Janette Turner Hospital's post-9/11 Novels; Belinda McKay.- 9. 'Shock and Awe': The Memory of Trauma in post-9/11 Artworks; Denise N. Rall.- 10. Bearing Witness to Injustice: Latin America, Refugees and Memorialisation in Australia; Robert Mason.- 11. A Sense of Embattlement: Australian Jewish Communal Leadership's Response to 9/11; Dashiel Lawrence.- 12. Violent Femmes: Collective Memory after 9/11 and Women on the Front Line of Journalism; Rebecca Te'o.- 13. Death and the Maiden: Memorialisation, Scandal, and the Gendered Mediation of Australian Soldiers; Jessica Carniel.- 14. Reflecting on the Wars on Terror;Frank Bongiorno.
About the author
Jessica Gildersleeve is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, and a graduate of the University of Bristol.
Richard Gehrmann is Senior Lecturer in International Studies at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, and a graduate of the University of Cambridge.
Summary
This edited collection aims to respond to dominant perspectives on twenty-first-century war by exploring how the events of 9/11 and the subsequent Wars on Terror are represented and remembered outside of the US framework. Existing critical coverage ignores the meaning of these events for people, nations and cultures apparently peripheral to them but which have - as shown in this collection - been extraordinarily affected by the social, political and cultural changes these wars have wrought. Adopting a literary and cultural history approach, the book asks how these events resonate and continue to show effects in the rest of the world, with a particular focus on Australia and Britain. It argues that such reflections on the impact of the Wars on Terror help us to understand what global conflict means in a contemporary context, as well as what its representative motifs might tell us about how nations like Australia and Britain perceive and construct their remembered identities on the worldstage in the twenty-first century. In its close examination of films, novels, memoir, visual artworks, media, and minority communities in the years since 2001, this collection looks at the global impacts of these events, and the ways they have shaped, and continue to shape, Britain and Australia’s relation to the rest of the world.
Additional text
“The authors shed light on the old/dormant discourses created during the Cold War, and their relationship with the War on Terror, but also present voices illuminating perspectives … This book seeks to articulate these other perspectives, and to explain how the past interrogates the present in contexts of uncertainty and fear. As such it is a must-read project for those with an interest in the role of memory in war and terrorism.” (Maximiliano Emanuel Korstanje,International Journal of Cyber Warfare and Terrorism, Vol. 09 (1), January - March, 2019)
Report
"The authors shed light on the old/dormant discourses created during the Cold War, and their relationship with the War on Terror, but also present voices illuminating perspectives ... This book seeks to articulate these other perspectives, and to explain how the past interrogates the present in contexts of uncertainty and fear. As such it is a must-read project for those with an interest in the role of memory in war and terrorism." (Maximiliano Emanuel Korstanje,International Journal of Cyber Warfare and Terrorism, Vol. 09 (1), January - March, 2019)
