Memorials of absence in post 9/11 Anglo-expression

Abstract

Depictions of 9/11 have often obscured narratives of individual suffering; while there was great loss of life, this loss of life is generally imagined not as individual narratives, but narratives en masse. My presentation will explore the proximity of individual narrative to the event, by exploring some well-known historical images alongside filmic depictions of the event as seen in The Revenger's Tragedy. Doing so, I will argue that cultural depictions shift depending on the narrator's proximity to the event. I argue that cultural narratives of 9/11 create Memorials of Absence and conventional means of memorial are impossible in a post-apocalyptic world.