Uwe Zagratzki

Joanna Witkowska

Anna Gonerko-Frej

Volume 2 of Ideological Battlegrounds – Constructions of Us and Them Before and After 9/11 continues and complements the discussion of the event undertaken in the first part of the two-volume publication (2014). This time, the focus is put on language and discourse. The contributions here volume explore the construction of “Us” and “Them” in a variety of pre- and post-9/11 texts, mainly from the perspectives of (political) discourse analysis and translation studies. The book shows how language in use reflects and retells the tragic event and how it (re-)constructs its actors, bringing us closer to understanding the roots and long-term consequences of 9/11. The volume is by no means exhaustive of the topic, but demonstrates its complexity and continuing relevance for today’s world.

Volume 2 Perspectives in Language

Ideological Battlegrounds – Constructions of Us and Them Before and After 9/11

“The effects of 9/11 ramify through a network of conduits and pathways, including the examples of expressive culture this volume explores; and the registration of those effects will likewise be felt in an array of documents and texts. The cultural, literary, and mass mediated effects of 9/11 encompass the globe and the chapters in this volume assume a transnational and international range of vantage points. The topics examined include the representation of Islam and Moslems in a number of texts and genres, the political and psychological dilemmas faced by characters in a number of literary works, and the refraction of current psycho-cultural-political tensions in forms of expressive culture in which the effects of 9/11 are felt in other than explicit ways. Was 9/11 a moment that punctuated and disrupted the movement of history or, as one of the authors suggests, did it act as a catalyst to escalate existing stereotypes? The chapters investigate not just different genres and cultural forms but distinct modes of intersection between the political, the cultural and the psychological. One achievement of this volume is to show how 9/11’s effects at times insinuate themselves in discourse through nuance and subtlety, and at other times frontally assault texts and images. In the words of one article, “modern Dutch post-9/11 novels directly participate in current cultural and political discourses.” By the same token, these cultural and political discourses participate in novels, films, TV shows, and the effects of 9/11 proliferate and concentrate in this exchange. This volume draws timely attention to the multiple forms of this complex interaction.” Dr Patrick Hagopian, University of Lancaster

Joanna Witkowska

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