Title: "[S]ometimes America needs to be pushed": Amy Waldman's The Submission and the early American 9/11 novels
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2017, vol. 43, iss. 2, pp. [79]-94
Extent
[79]-94
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2017-2-4
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/137608
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
By comparing Amy Waldman's novel, The Submission (2011), to the earlier, already canonized American 9/11 novels, such as Don DeLillo's Falling Man (2007), John Updike's Terrorist (2006), and Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005), this article suggests that Waldman's novel turns many tropes, themes, and customs of the earlier novels upside down, and thus, epitomizes a new phase in 9/11 literature. The article focuses on how The Submission redirects the reader's sympathies, undoes the atmosphere of suspicion and paranoia, drops the 9/11 victims and the attacks themselves from their pedestal, and deconstructs stereotypes. It shows how Waldman's novel steps away from the trauma and the victimhood of the earlier novels and takes a critical focus on the consequences of the attacks. Additionally, the article suggests that The Submission comments on and criticizes the dominant 9/11 discourse, while the earlier American 9/11 novels, perhaps unwittingly, tend to support it.
References
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[30] Sklar, Howard (2013) The Art of Sympathy in Fiction: Forms of Ethical and Emotional Persuasion. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
[31] Sykes, Rachel (2014) 'A Failure of Imagination? Problems in 'Post-9/11' Fiction.' In: Fanuzzi, Rober and Michael Wolfe (eds.) Recovering 9/11 in New York. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars 248–262.
[32] Updike, John (2007) Terrorist (2006). London: Penguin Books.
[33] Vanderwees, Christopher (2014) 'A Tightrope at the Twin Towers: Photographs of Falling Bodies and James Marsh's Man on Wire'. In: Fanuzzi, Rober and Michael Wolfe (eds.) Recovering 9/11 in New York. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 228–247.
[34] Versluys, Kristiaan (2009) Out of the Blue: September 11 and the Novel. New York: Columbia University Press.
[35] Waldman, Amy (2012) The Submission (2011). London: Windmill Books.
[2] Baelo-Allué, Sonia (2016) 'From the Traumatic to the Political: Cultural Trauma, 9/11 and Amy Waldman's The Submission.' Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies 38 (1): 165–183. Accessed on April 26, 2017.
[3] Balaev, Michelle (2014) 'Literary Trauma Theory Reconsidered'. In: Balaev, Michelle (ed.) Contemporary Approaches in Literary Trauma Theory. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1–14.
[4] Banita, Georgiana (2012) Plotting Justice: Narrative Ethics and Literary Culture after 9/11. Lincoln: Nebraska University Press.
[5] Bragard, Veronique, Christophe Dony and Warren Rosenberg (2011) 'Introduction.' In: Bragard, Veronique, Christophe Dony and Warren Rosenberg (eds.) Portraying 9/1: Essays on Representations in Comics, Literature, Film and Theatre. Jefferson: McFarland, 1–9.
[6] Bush, George W. (2001) 'Address to the Nation.' Presidential Rhetoric, September 20, http://www.presidentialrhetoric.com/speeches/09.20.01.html Accessed on July 28, 2017.
[7] Cvek, Sven (2011) Towering Figures: Reading the 9/11 Archive. New York: Rodopi.
[8] DeLillo, Don (2008) Falling Man (2007). Export Edition. New York: Scribner.
[9] Foer, Jonathan Safran (2005) Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin.
[10] Gauthier, Tim (2015) 9/11 Fiction, Empathy, and Otherness. Lanham: Lexington Books.
[11] Gray, Richard (2011) After the Fall: American Literature Since 9/11. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
[12] Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck (2011) Becoming American? The Forging of Arab and Muslim Identity in Pluralist America. Waco: Baylor University Press.
[13] Hodges, Adam & Chad Nilep (2007) 'Introduction: Discourse, War and Terrorism.' In: Hodges, Adam and Chad Nilep (eds.) Discourse, War and Terrorism. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1–17.
[14] Holloway, David (2008) 9/11 and the War on Terror. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
[15] Keeble, Arin (2014) The 9/11 Novel: Trauma, Politics and Identity. Jefferson: McFarland.
[16] Kishi, Katayoun (2016) 'Anti-Muslim assaults reach 9/11-era levels, FBI data show.' PewResearch-Center, November 21, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/21/anti-muslim-assaultsreach-911-era-levels-fbi-data-show/. Accessed on April 26, 2017.
[17] Kaplan, E. Ann (2005) Trauma Culture: The Politics of Terror and Loss in Media and Literature. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
[18] Knapp, Kathy (2014) American Unexceptionalism: The Everyman and the Suburban Novel after 9/11. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press.
[19] McInerney, Jay (2007) The Good Life (2006). New York: Vintage.
[20] Messud, Claire (2007) The Emperor's Children (2006). New York: Vintage.
[21] Mishra, Pankaj (2007) 'The End of Innocence.' The Guardian, May 19, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/may/19/fiction.martinamis. Accessed on July 19, 2017.
[22] Morey, Peter and Amina Yaqin (2011) Framing Muslims: Stereotyping and Representation after 9/11. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
[23] Peek, Lori (2011) Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans after 9/11. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
[24] Petrovic, Paul (2015) 'Introduction: Emergent Trends in Post-9/11 Literature and Criticism.'In: Petrovic, Paul (ed.) Representing 9/11: Trauma, Ideology, and Nationalism in Literature, Film, and Television. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, ix–xvii.
[25] PewResearchCenter (2014) 'Is the Islamic Religion More Likely than Others to Encourage Violence?' Growing Concern about Rise of Islamic Extremism at Home and Abroad, September 10, www.people-press.org/2014/09/10/growing-concern-about-rise-of-islamic-extremism-at-homeand-abroad/9-10-2014_9/. Accessed on April 26, 2017.
[26] PewResearchCenter (2011) 'Challenges, Worries, and Concerns.' Muslim Americans: No Signs of Growth in Alienation or Support for Extremism, August 30, http://www.people-press.org/2011/08/30/section-4-challenges-worries-and-concerns/. Accessed on July 25, 2017.
[27] Pöhlmann, Sascha (2010) 'Collapsing Identities: The Representation and Imagination of the Terrorist in Falling Man'. In: Schneck, Peter and Philipp Schweighauser (eds.) Terrorism, Media, and the Ethics of Fiction: Transatlantic Perspectives on Don DeLillo. New York & London: Continuum, 51–64.
[28] Randall, Martin (2011) 9/11 and the Literature of Terror. Edinburgh: University Press.
[29] Simpson, David (2008) 'Telling It Like It Isn't'. In: Keniston, Ann and Jeanne Follansbee Quinn (eds.) Literature after 9/11. New York: Routledge, 209–223.
[30] Sklar, Howard (2013) The Art of Sympathy in Fiction: Forms of Ethical and Emotional Persuasion. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
[31] Sykes, Rachel (2014) 'A Failure of Imagination? Problems in 'Post-9/11' Fiction.' In: Fanuzzi, Rober and Michael Wolfe (eds.) Recovering 9/11 in New York. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars 248–262.
[32] Updike, John (2007) Terrorist (2006). London: Penguin Books.
[33] Vanderwees, Christopher (2014) 'A Tightrope at the Twin Towers: Photographs of Falling Bodies and James Marsh's Man on Wire'. In: Fanuzzi, Rober and Michael Wolfe (eds.) Recovering 9/11 in New York. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 228–247.
[34] Versluys, Kristiaan (2009) Out of the Blue: September 11 and the Novel. New York: Columbia University Press.
[35] Waldman, Amy (2012) The Submission (2011). London: Windmill Books.