Harvard Teaching A New 9/11 Course, Not Much Better Than the First...
In the department of History and Literature... be sure to check out the readings! Especially this one.
HL90h, Fall 2008
Jeanne Follansbee Quinn
Narrating 9/11
In this course we will examine representations of the events of 9/11, considering the range and kinds of narratives used by writers, photographers, politicians, historians, and critics to make sense of those events. The course is organized into three thematic sections, each of which will concentrate on a particular approach used to interpret 9/11. In section I, we will consider the experience of witness in conjunction with theories of trauma and the representation of traumatic events. Section II, the longest of the thematic groupings, will concentrate on the role of narrative in structuring and representing experience. In this section, we will consider how historical and literary representations emerge from a collective process of cultural narration and contestation, examining theoretical works on fictional and historical narrative alongside works of cultural criticism. The final section of the course will focus on efforts to memorialize 9/11, examining works that remember the 9/11 dead and plans for 9/11 memorials in order to consider how memorizalization emerges from the dialogue between witness and narration. The course will concentrate primarily on written texts in a range of genres: government reports, graphic novels, fiction, plays, poems, and news reports.
Assignments:
Assignments for the course will include:
 Paper I (4-5 pages) 20%
 Paper II (4-5 pages) 20%
 Group Oral Report (25 minutes) 20%
 Final research paper (12-15 pages) 30%
 Class participation 10%
Assignments for the course will emphasize interdisciplinary methods and are designed to help students develop skills in close reading, research and writing, and oral presentation.
 Paper I will be a close-reading of an image.
 Paper II will be an analysis of news coverage of September 11.
 Oral reports will focus on how popular fiction/memoir about the Middle East is represented and marketed after 9/11.
 The final research paper will be on a primary source of the student’s choice, supported and contextualized with evidence from secondary sources.
Course Texts
Texts marked with an asterisk (*) are available at the Harvard COOP, with one exception: you should purchase Trauma at Home through Amazon or another on-line seller. (Please note that Up from Zero has not arrived at the COOP yet.) I will make other materials available to you in a course pack.
Schedule of Readings
I. Witnessing 9/11
September 17: Introduction
September 24: Falling Man
“A Creeping Horror,†New York Times, September 12, 2001, A1& A7
(available through e-resources at ProQuest Historical Newspapers; look at Page Map PDF for both pages)
Richard Drew photo of falling man (available on-line)
Tom Junod, “The Falling Manâ€
http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0903-SEP_FALLINGMAN
Marianne Hirsch, “I Took Pictures: September 2001 and Beyondâ€
(Trauma at Home*)
Claire Kahane, “Uncanny Sights: The Anticipation of Abominationâ€
(Trauma at Home*)
Barbie Zelizer, “Photography, Journalism, and Trauma†(CP)
E. Ann Kaplan, “9/11 and ‘Disturbing Remains’†(CP)
October 1: The Place of Witness
Art Spiegelman, In the Shadow of No Towers*
Suheir Hammad, “first writing since†(Trauma at Home*)
Michael Rothberg, “’There’s No Poetry in This’: Writing, Trauma, and Home†(Trauma at Home*)
Richard Gletzer, “Witnessing 9/11: Art Spiegelman and the Persistence of
Trauma†(CP)
October 3 (Friday): Paper I Due (4:00 p.m. my mailbox)
II. Narrating 9/11
October 8: “When the Government Writes Historyâ€
9/11 Commission Report, Chapters 1-3, 7-13*
Ernest May, “When Government Writes History: A Memoir of the 9/11 Commission†http://hnn.us/articles/11972.html
Richard Posner, “The 9/11 Report: A Dissent,†NY Times Book Review,
August 29, 2004 (available through e-resources at ProQuest
Historical Newspapers)
Louis Mink, “Narrative as a Cognitive Instrument†(CP)
October 15: Telling It Like It Is
Frederic Beigbeder, Windows on the World*
Hayden White, “The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality†(CP)
October 22: “In the Ruins of the Futureâ€
Don DeLillo, Falling Man*
Don DeLillo, “In the Ruins of the Futureâ€
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/dec/22/fiction.dondelillo
Peter Brooks, “Reading for the Plot,†Reading for the Plot (CP)
October 24: Paper II Due (4 p.m. my mailbox)
October 29: Heroes, Superheroes, and “Evil Do-ersâ€
Bush speeches:
-September 11, 2001 (televised address to the nation): http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010911-16.html
-September 20, 2001 (Address to Joint Session of Congress):
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010920-8.html
Susan Sontag, from “Talk of the Town,†The New Yorker, September 24, 2001
(available through e-resources at LexisNexis Academic)
Marvel Comics, A Moment of Silence: Saluting the Heroes of September 11th
(with an Introduction by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani) (CP)
Jean Baudrillard, “The Spirit of Terrorism†(CP)
Susan Faludi, Chapters 1-3, The Terror Dream (CP)
October 30 (Thursday): 6 p.m. Susan Faludi Lecture (from The Terror Dream)
Thompson Room (110 Barker Center)
November 5: The End of Innocence
Claire Messud, The Emperor’s Children*
Susan Redstone, “The War of the Fathers: Trauma, Fantasy, and
September 11†(Trauma at Home*)
November 12: Evocations and Invocations: 9/11 Poetry
Selected poems (CP)
Jeffrey Gray, “Precocious Testimony: Poetry and the Uncommemorable†(CP)
November 19: Literature after 9/11: Group Presentations
III. Memorializing 9/11
December 3: Remembering the Victims
Portraits 9/11/01: The Collected New York Times Portraits of Grief, selections
Anne Nelson, The Guys *
Toni Morrison, “The Dead of September 11†(Trauma at Home*)
Nancy K. Miller, “Portraits of Grief: Telling Details and the New Genres
of Testimony†(CP)
David Simpson, Introduction and Chapter 1, 9/11: The Culture of Commemoration*
December 5 (Friday): Final Paper Prospectus Due
December 10: Memorial Spaces and Places: Ground Zero and Beyond
Logan Airport 9/11 Memorial
http://www.massport.com/logan/about_911Memorial_overview.html
Living Memorials Project
http://www.livingmemorialsproject.net/about.htm
“Tribute in Light†http://www.creativetime.org/programs/archive/2002/tribute/main.html
Paul Goldberger, Up from Zero*
David Simpson, Chapter 2, 9/11: The Culture of Commemoration*
January 7, 2009: Final Papers Due (4 p.m. my mailbox)
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Nota Bene - Quinn is not an actual Professor...
NAME: Jeanne Follansbee Quinn, Lecturer on History and Literature
FIELD IN HISTORY AND LITERATURE: America
Ph.D.: Boston University (English)
AREAS OF INTEREST:
20th Century American Literature, American Cultural Criticism, Aesthetic Philosophy, American Pragmatism, the American Novel, 20th Century Social and Political Theory, History of American Publishing, 1830-1940, Documentary book, Literature of the 1930s, American Modernism
American Cultural and Intellectual History, Film, Film Theory, Feminist Theory, Critical Theory, 19th Century American literature, 20th Century Drama
BOOKS:
Literature after 9/11 (Routledge, 2008)
Democratic Aesthetics: Popular Front Antifascism (in progress)
...at Harvard, anyway.
http://www.uncg.edu/eng/englishfaculty/facultybios/quinn.html
Paper I will be a close-reading of an image.
Image of choice? Â How about this one?
From:
The Woman At The Edge Of The Abyss
By Douglas Herman
--
Though human noses have an impressive 5 million olfactory cells with which to smell, sheepdogs have 220 million, enabling them to smell 44 times better than men.
here's a few more...
but we can't do the students' work for them!
one more...
here's my analasis...
I have NO DOUBT that American Airlines Flight 77 is what caused the damage to this building. How do I know? Victim's Family Memberâ„¢ Ted Olson told us his wife called him from the plane. And anyone who doubts anything a Victim's Family Memberâ„¢ says, or anything a Victimâ„¢ says is an obvious Nazi piece of shit.
Invade Patsystan NOW! Iran, Saudi Arabia and Patsystan, and George Bush were behind 9/11!
bullshit class
This class sounds like total bullshit. G, can you attend and make subversive comments? or slip flyers into the hands of class members? Or park your stand outside the hall where the class is held??
E
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"It is difficult to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."
--William Carlos Williams (from the poem 'From')
nothing like that planned...
But I certainly will keep on truthing, so that the 15 students who take the class will find themselves sounding like idiots among their better-informed peers! In fact it was a student who tipped me off--another one of those folks who stop and say "I've seen you out here all the time... etc."
Your plan of attack
Your plan sounds good -- if you could somehow convince people that being on the side of 9/11 truth is "cool" then the truth will spread like wildfire. I assume that students there take great pride in being in the know; take advantage of that fact.
E
-------
"It is difficult to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."
--William Carlos Williams (from the poem 'From')
maybe G should get a...
... wig hat and shades to match his blog persona then, they would KNOW that being on the side of 9/11 Truth is "cool."
--
Though human noses have an impressive 5 million olfactory cells with which to smell, sheepdogs have 220 million, enabling them to smell 44 times better than men.
no, seriously
just figure out what is currently considered "cool" (music, clothes, etc.) and conspicuously display these symbols alongside the 9/11 truth stuff. Or give away wtcdemo t-shirts/stickers. you need more interesting bling -- how about 9/11 truth underwear? is that going too far??
p.s. how is this site funded? i should be buying t-shirts and coffee mugs, shouldn't i?
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"It is difficult to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."
--William Carlos Williams (from the poem 'From')
HA! BWAHAHA!
thanks for the tips E. no offense taken, but i don't need to "figure out" what is considered cool! i--er, I mean RT *is* cool. in fact RT just loaded his blackberry with hot tunes from Beck, Cake, and Prodigy. The coolest thing played by the kids who were recently promoting their new student periodical was Manu Chao, which I was playing at Harvard over three years ago when these kids were still in high school. So yeah, RT's mos def one of the cool kids. :)
As for what WTCD costs, it's about $7 a month, and RT pays it all out of his paper route money. this isn't 911flogger.coma - we don't have to spend money buying ads on premium sites like Your BB Sucks or JewMoonHoax.com in order to generate traffic. Or sell ads to McCain2008, for that matter. If you buy any bling do it because you want to see Bruce1337's awesome logo every time you sip your coffee or bib your infant, not because you think we need the moolah.
you must be 21 years old!
G - I'll have to take your word for it that you're cool, since I've no clue in that regard. I am always just jazzed when I someone uses proper grammar and punctuation -- oh the thrill! But I am very old... still, wtcdemo knickers are a good idea, you must admit!
E
-------
"It is difficult to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."
--William Carlos Williams (from the poem 'From')
Undies that say: "Can you handle the REAL truth?"
Interesting! ;-)
_________________________________
happiness is either here or nowhere
deconstruct that!
Good one, Bruce. Now you'll have to work on this idea -- I want boxers, briefs, old-lady pants, and a g-string or something that the young ladies would wear!
-------
"It is difficult to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."
--William Carlos Williams (from the poem 'From')
Oh, let me check my schedule first
Actually, I have a prioritized order: Flyers for a presentation by our highly esteemed Mr. Richard Gage in Berlin in November. I might get to you later, though!
_________________________________
happiness is either here or nowhere
don't forget
pantaloon undergarments! l'haute couture these days...
cringe
"jazzed when I someone uses proper grammar..." Yikes!
E
-------
"It is difficult to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."
--William Carlos Williams (from the poem 'From')
oh there's no question...
that "9/11 guy" is "cool". i assume it's considered a badge of honor to have talked to him (and survived!) part of being cool though is to maintain an aura of mystery and yes, slight danger, so the going is slow. but the going is also very very good. the Harvard Crimson (the NYTimes wannabe rag) has never dared to publish an op-ed belittling 9/11 conspiracy theories, because they know that would pique people's interest and that nothing they say will be in any way credible or defensible.
Wow, looks like an awesome class!
Except that it won't be. This is like a whole additional layer of meta-mindfuck now that academics (especially of the English Dept variety) feel that enough time has passed to make it fair game.
It would be really interesting to know if she will tolerate a critical stance -- for instance, just a "close reading" of the waving woman (beyond the truthy-technical content there, there is also a truckload of implicit judgment of rescue efforts, etc etc.)
my guess is...
that capping enrollment at 15 was a way for her to be able to weed out the 2 or three truthers who might have taken the class. "kids, we're going to have to lottery the course since so many of you want to take it. in order to enter the lottery please write a brief statement about why you think al Qaeda hates America so much and put it in this hat."
a real truther would know enough to fake his/her way in!
and then suddenly claim to have a "change of heart/mind." here for many years we had this bullshit class on the holohoax. I sat in once - when i first arrived - it was all 'boo hoo hoo' and poetry and feeling pretty fucking guilty. no analysis of the events, what led up to them, etc.
E
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"It is difficult to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."
--William Carlos Williams (from the poem 'From')
LOL!
Then again, profound academic analysis might prove to be slightly contrary to the desired educational results...
Thinking about what might be covered bona fide makes me cringe, actually. 6-2.8=6? No! How to cremate a frozen corpse using only two rails, a piece of lumber and a female corpse to get the fire going? No! How I spent years captive in a camp where people actually were put to death upon arrival? No. How the '48 population of Israel spontaneously came into existence? No! How to dig a giant hole without disrupting soil sediments? Not that either...
Back to heart-throbbing poetry!
_________________________________
happiness is either here or nowhere
very funny, Bruce!
Can you imagine a real class on this stuff? I'm thinking about proposing something to my faculty senate. I'd probably get a horse in my bed (and that's just from my chair).
E
-------
"It is difficult to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."
--William Carlos Williams (from the poem 'From')
Frankly, I can only think of one thing to cover:
Transcripts of the (alleged) "Wannsee Conference" on "the Final Solution". That, and watching Schindler's List, maybe. LOL. Well, that is precisely what's making me cringe -- in a good way, though.
PS: Anti-semites! Anti-semites wherever you look!
_________________________________
happiness is either here or nowhere
Doesn't matter what's (not) in the Wannsee Conference minutes.
The "omission" in the minutes get interpreted as damning anyway - due to Eichmann's 1962 "testimony" extorted through torture by Israelis at the show trial.
E
-------
"It is difficult to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."
--William Carlos Williams (from the poem 'From')
was ist cool?
Mr. 1337, what can you tell me about Ape, Beck und Brinkmann and the songs Trotzdem Weiter and Global 2001? I think the first one is based on Redemption Song, but have no clue about the content of either... I accidentally downloaded the songs while fishing the Amazon mp3 lake for "the" Beck and want to make sure I'm not listening to some weird Germans with dangerous beliefs...
and E Vero, please refrain from spreading ridiculous conspiracy theories about coerced testimony being used to prop up historic hoaxes. as if.
I can't tell you much
but even from my very brief research I can confidently conclude that they're mostly harmless.
_________________________________
happiness is either here or nowhere
deconstructionism
I hate that english-class deconstructionism bullshit. they should call it obfuscationism.
E
-------
"It is difficult to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."
--William Carlos Williams (from the poem 'From')
That just means you aren't doing it right ;)
I find deconstructionism really interesting, but it's true that when you're hearing or reading someone discuss something in those terms, there's often a fine line between meaningful content and bullshit.
The emperor's new clothes
I find that the more obscurantist the work, the more likely it is to earn academics tenure. Really, though, maybe you can explain it to me. Isn't deconstruction all about deconstructing a text to examine underlying meaning? Sort of like psychoanalysis? So there are always varying interpretations and no way to settle what is the truth? An interesting hobby, perhaps... I think psychoanalysis can be very useful to the person undergoing therapy, but in the case of fiction seems like a real waste of time. Sometimes, wasting time is okay, but I guess I'd rather listen to Ella Fitzgerald or watch old movies. (I'm very uncool, by the way.)
E
-------
"It is difficult to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."
--William Carlos Williams (from the poem 'From')
deconstruction=hacking by grammar geeks
and cool is what cool does, E!
How can you say you are uncool, EV
How can you say you are uncool, EV when you say you would rather listen to Ella. Ella is COOL. Don’t listen to the jibbajabba a these young mahfahkahs. Cool also, is listening to the 3 Ms – Miles, Monk and Mingus. If you like the art of film, YOU MUST WATCH old black and white films. It is a class requirement, cf. “Citizen Kane.†Watching old flicks iz COOL.
My definition of coolness:
Daring to just be one's genuine, unfiltered self, without giving a rat's ass about any (mostly artificially created) outside pressures.
_________________________________
happiness is either here or nowhere
I like that definition!
-------
"It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."
--William Carlos Williams (from the poem 'From')
Ah, one of my all time faves...
is Charlie Mingus - Mingus, Mingus, Mingus.
Particularly the tune "II B.S.", recorded by Max Roach as "Haitian Fight Song".
--
Though human noses have an impressive 5 million olfactory cells with which to smell, sheepdogs have 220 million, enabling them to smell 44 times better than men.
I used to love old black and
I used to love old black and white movies - now I really get excited when I see a copy of "little foot" that we've not yet seen; I'm reading reviews on Amazon for the right version of the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. I've seen every Disney movie ever made. Sickening. I was watching Lawrence of Arabia a few weeks ago and could not stay awake through the second disk, despite the fact that I believe Peter O'Toole is a god... I don't think moms in our forties are _ever_ going to be cool, no matter how much Ella (or Etta, Aretha, Patsy, or Frank) we listen to. The 3 Ms will never make it with me - I need something to sing with.
M(E)
-------
"It is difficult to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."
--William Carlos Williams (from the poem 'From')
Whaaa?
"I don't think moms in our forties are _ever_ going to be cool."
Speak for yourself!
Ah yes, I spent many an hour watching the "Little Foot" series and I used to get very excited when a new Scooby Doo animated movie came out, because I actually enjoyed some of those. There was one with a trio of Goth teenage girls who had a band that was my favorite.
that's so funny, Cass
I loved reading your note! Yes, we've seen quite a few Scooby Doo episodes/movies, but my son inexplicably developed a terror of Scooby Doo -- too many ghosts, I guess -- so although I think I saw that one, I can't be sure.
Glad you're a cool mom. You probably live in an urban setting and get a lot of stimulation/reinforcement that way. It's hard to feel cool when you live in the burbs and are constantly having to wait on/clean up after these demanding, irrational short people (aka children). If you lived in my town, we could have a 9/11-truth play date!
E
-------
"It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."
--William Carlos Williams (from the poem 'From')
lawrence
saw the movie for the first time in Beirut as a youth. went to Spain, and obsessed with the image of Lawrence and his "headdress" - used to draw this image on blackboard when no one was looking.Â
the beginning of my love affair with the ME. Â
finish the movie..the book, whatev. they betrayed the arabs big time.
thanks for your advice, Kate
Thanks for posting. I'll get the movie and take another stab at it. I've never been a fan of movie stars, but O'Toole is different... I love him in all his movies. Do you know whether the storyline of Lawrence is historically accurate?
E
p.s. You've had such an interesting life, methinks.
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"It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there."
--William Carlos Williams (from the poem 'From')
the romanticization of T. E. Lawrence
i believe the film was romanticized, being based on "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom"; however,  the events of The Arab Revolt and the betrayal of the King Faisal are accurate..but check out the Wiki on Lawrence - fascinating.
How many times have you watched "The English Patient"? don't ask - another obsession...especially with Ralph Fiennes whom I discovered for the first time in "Shindler's List" - although in black & white, his eyes were mesmerizingly steely-gray.
Ella
i have burned through my Cole Porter Tribute double-CD set over the past 10 years...so romantic! have been known to perform a rendition of "I Love Paris" anon...even ham it up a la Madelyn Kahn.
Miles, Monk, and Mingus...yes and McCoy Tyner, Laz
yeah and she misspelled
memorizalization! (memorialization) jeez
i like your "meta-mindfuck" ! definitely for this little brain.
after closer read...
witness, narration, memorialization
should be witness, mythologization, memorialization
yeah, man, when dey gonna hab a class on "The Mythologization of 911".
hey, profs and scholars, you teach it. Â
and i'm buying a coffeehouse
been a longtime aspiration of mine to have a little joint for cool and hip people - yeah, you're so cool RT - salon/coffeehouse ...but have it function as a "mini-U" with visiting lecturers, authors, poets, musical acts, artistic renderings, open mics, etc.
you're all invited.Â
had done something similar in the past, running an open mic and putting on shows, intergenerational, in an old funky church, until the building was taken over by baptist Palinesque congregation...bwaaa