Tag Archives: Abraham DeLeon

Spaces of Terror and Death: September 11th, Public Memory, and the High School Imaginary

Critical Education has just published its latest issue:

Critical Education
Vol 2, No 10 (2011)
Table of Contents

Articles

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Spaces of Terror and Death: September 11th, Public Memory, and the High School Imaginary
Abraham P. DeLeon, University of Texas at San Antonio

Abstract

September 11th 2001 is forever cloaked in affective resonances: feelings, emotions, and desires that remain in bodies after that fateful day. However, the memories and events of 9-11 are centered in the creation and reproduction of spaces of terror and death that traverse global boundaries, linked by historical precedents rooted in European colonization. Although 9-11 was a tragic day for the lives lost, this event has signaled a new era in the hegemony of global capitalism, the United States, and the surveillance technologies that have arisen. September 11th now exists in the memory as justification for a host of problematic relationships occurring globally. In this article, the author moves across multiple traditions to rethink 9-11 in the context of space, postcolonialism, the body, and the forging of public memories. He ends by sparking his utopian imaginary, resisting dominant conceptions of that fateful day and rethinking September 11th through alternative narrative understandings.