Amerika po 11. septembru 2001 : odzivi v poeziji in kulturi : doktorska disertacija

english

doktorska dela

2016

close reading   contemporary American poetry   content analysis   crisis   culture   dissertations   events of 9/11   media   New Criticism   politics   responses   thematic analysis   trauma

Univerza v Mariboru, Filozofska fakulteta

The doctoral dissertation with the title"Post-9/11 America: Poetic and Cultural Responses" examines the immediate responses that emerged in American media and poetry after the terrorist attacks on 11 September, 2001 in New York City and Washington, D.C. The research proceeds from the analysis of responses to 9/11 in several American printed media, to the reading of poetic works by contemporary American poets. Using the resources of the editorials in four major daily American newspapers (USA Today, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Washington Times) and two leading weekly American magazines (The New Yorker and The Weekly Standard), the research employs the theoretical approach of content analysis to examine the rhetoric used. This method enables textual data analysis in selected editorials associated with the language of 9/11 to confirm the first variable of the thesis; i.e. that the media reproduced the manner of the rhetoric of the then current government administration. Seeking to explain the rhetoric of the politicians and the media after 9/11, the analysis explores several parameters. This kind of rhetoric addressed the issues connected to 9/11, and employed a great deal of patriotism-related words as well as a language that could help instigate fear and paranoia in Americans and their culture. After the first hypothesis of the thesis has been established, the study turns towards the primary argument of the thesis. The main crux of the study is to show that the majority of the poets deviated from the prevalent rhetoric of the time, and did not resort to the language of fear and intense patriotism. This in-depth study of contemporary American poetry that came into existence as a response to the events of 9/11 focuses on poems published in several anthologies (Poetry after 9/11: An Anthology of New York Poets; September 11, 2001 American Writers Respond; An Eye for an Eye Makes the Whole World Blind; September 11: West Coast Writers Approach Ground Zero; 110 Stories), prominent American journals (such as The New Yorker and Michigan Quarterly Review), and poetry collections. Focusing on portraying the manifold poetic responses to 9/11, this study leans on thematic criticism as a comparative approach for creating a collectivity of poems that differ in metrics, style, tropes and figures of speech. Thematic criticism provides a foundation for organizing the poems into thematic clusters, not by determining unique thematic features of a specific poem, but by establishing attributes that unite several poems into a thematic cluster. The thesis divides the 9/11 poems into eight thematic clusters, which are then analyzed in detail. Additionally, the study uses another method to analyze individual poetic responses to 9/11, which is the formalist theoretical approach, New Criticism. This interpretive method of close reading enables an interpretation of a poem by analyzing its formal elements based on internal evidence. With the combination of the interpretive and comparative approach, the thesis has confirmed the main postulate and has established that most post-9/11 American poetry eschewed the prevalent patriotic rhetoric of the then current U.S. media. The study has shown that post-9/11 poetry is a marginal genre in comparison to the 9/11 novel when it comes to the critical examination of the post-9/11 literary responses. Hence, this study is novel in providing a substantial scholarly examination of post-9/11 poetry written by American poets. Chapter 2 investigates fear, patriotism and language issues in politics and the media after 9/11.Chapter 3 establishes the prevailing rhetoric in the immediate post 9/11 response of U.S. media with the help of the theoretical framework of content analysis. The pre-existing scholarly work on literary responses to 9/11 and the problems with representation of 9/11 in American culture occupy Chapter 4, while Chapter 5 sets out the selected methodology (Thematic Criticism and New Criticism) for studying post-9/11 American poetry. Chapter 6 deals extensively with thematic representations in post-9/11 American poetry.

08.08.2023