English 380-001
Media and Society: Cinema and 9/11
Instr: Martin, Andrew
Office: CRT 427; 229-6879
e-mail: andym@uwm.edu
Office hours: TBA
Course Information: MW; 11:00am-12:50pm; CRT 321
Course Description
French philosophers characterized the explosive events of 9/11 as a shock that Americans had been fantasying about for decades. What they are pointing to is the American love of disaster movies-big screen special effects that cause audiences to cheer at the simulation of, for example, the White House exploding in Independence Day. In this course we will investigate the pre and post 9/11 media world in search of ways to understand and think through the media constructions of disaster and fantasy and the connections these have to social and political thought. Of central importance will be the ways in which American media culture absorbed the events of 9/11 and came up with new forms of memorial and narrative strategy capable of naturalizing 9/11.
Tentative Reading List: Rethinking Global Security: Media, Popular Culture, and the War on Terror.
Tentative List of Films: The Sum of All Fears, Siege, Enemy of the State, The 25th Hour, The Peace Maker, Syriana, Three Kings, World Trade Center, and various TV news, documentaries, and more.
