9/11 Gothic - Decrypting Ghosts and Trauma in New York Citys Terrorism Novels

Published to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks, 9/11 Gothic: Decrypting Ghosts and Trauma in New York City's Terrorism Novels returns to the ruins and anguish of 9/11 to pose a question not yet addressed by scholarship. Two time World Fantasy Award-winning writer Danel Olson asks how, why, and where New York City novels capture the terror of the Al-Qaeda mass murders through a supernatural lens. This book explores ghostly presences from the world's largest crime scene in novels by Don DeLillo, Jonathan Safran Foer, Lynne Sharon Schwartz, Griffin Hansbury, and Patrick McGrath-all of whom have been called writers of Gotham. Arguing how theories on trauma and the Gothic can combine to explain ghostly encounters civilian survivors experience in fiction, Olson shares what those eerie meetings express about grief, guilt, love, memory, sex, and suicidal urges. This book also explores why and how paths to recovery open for these ghost-visited survivors in the fiction of catastrophe from the early twenty-first century.

List of contents

Introduction: Connecting Trauma Theory, 9/11 Novels, Gothic Traditions, and the Unidentified Bones of the World Trade CenterChapter 1: Don DeLillo's Falling Man (2007): Deserting and Impersonating the Dead Chapter 2: Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005): Searching and Disinterring the DeadChapter 3: Lynne Sharon Schwartz's The Writing on the Wall (2005): Avenging and Resurrecting the DeadChapter 4: Griffin Hansbury's The Nostalgist (2012): Conjuring and Romancing the DeadChapter 5: Patrick McGrath's Ground Zero (2005): Abandoning and Angering the DeadConclusion
Bibliography
Appendix 1: Further Reading
Appendix 2: Interview at the Opening of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum with Director Alice M. Greenwald, 16 June 2014

About the author

Danel Olson is an independent scholar.

Product details

• Authors: Danel Olson, Olson Danel
• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.09.2021
• EAN: 9781793638328
• ISBN: 978-1-79363-832-8
• No. of pages: 230
• Series: Reading Trauma and Memory
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; New York, New York City, English, LITERARY CRITICISM / Gothic & Romance, LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 21st Century, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Literary studies: from c 2000, 21st century;9/11;New York City;September 11th;terrorism