Martin Randall
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748638529
- eISBN:
- 9780748651825
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748638529.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This introductory chapter discusses the impact of the events of 9/11 on the present day. It identifies the various responses to terrorist attacks, which include eyewitness reports that gave ...
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This introductory chapter discusses the impact of the events of 9/11 on the present day. It identifies the various responses to terrorist attacks, which include eyewitness reports that gave commentators empirical evidence to start creating what was happening at the time and then in the aftermath. It then looks at the appearance of 9/11 in literature, which combined authoritative documentation and accessible — and at times exciting — prose, in written format as well as in cinema. It examines the emergent ‘Literature of Terror’, which is the massive spread of counter conspiracy theories that have developed, especially on the Internet. It also considers how such conspiracies shed more light on the internal problems of ‘fictionalising’ the attacks. Finally, the chapter studies the cultural significance of the Internet, which has rapidly grown over the years, and Jean Baudrillard's views on 9/11.Less
This introductory chapter discusses the impact of the events of 9/11 on the present day. It identifies the various responses to terrorist attacks, which include eyewitness reports that gave commentators empirical evidence to start creating what was happening at the time and then in the aftermath. It then looks at the appearance of 9/11 in literature, which combined authoritative documentation and accessible — and at times exciting — prose, in written format as well as in cinema. It examines the emergent ‘Literature of Terror’, which is the massive spread of counter conspiracy theories that have developed, especially on the Internet. It also considers how such conspiracies shed more light on the internal problems of ‘fictionalising’ the attacks. Finally, the chapter studies the cultural significance of the Internet, which has rapidly grown over the years, and Jean Baudrillard's views on 9/11.
