Category Archives: English 575 Post 9/11 Theory (Winter 2008)

Jeremiah Wright as critical theorist

From Dennis, Time Wise’s article arguing that Jeremiah Wright was right: Indignation doesn’t work for most whites, because having remained sanguine about, silent during, indeed often supportive of so much injustice over the years in this country–the theft of native … Continue reading

Posted in English 575 Post 9/11 Theory (Winter 2008), Race | 4 Comments

images of the not unforeseeable

In Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues with Jurgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida, Derrida argues that “September 11” is not an event (in the sense that Heidegger uses the term) because, in part, it was not unforeseeable. Of course, … Continue reading

Posted in English 575 Post 9/11 Theory (Winter 2008) | 1 Comment

what is a hero?

As I was struggling on the bike at the gym on Friday, I saw on television the story of the British plane that lost power and crashed. The pilot was being heralded as a hero (“The British pilot who made … Continue reading

Posted in English 575 Post 9/11 Theory (Winter 2008), Ethics | 8 Comments

Suheir Hammad’s poetry

An video of Suheir Hammad’s poetry, appropriate in my case now as I’m sitting in on a Post 9/11 Theory course. This week we’re discussing Slavoj Zizek’s The Desert of the Real; I’ll try to post more on my thoughts … Continue reading

Posted in English 575 Post 9/11 Theory (Winter 2008), Ethics, Poetry, Race, Social Justice | Leave a comment

a culture of humiliation: Zizek, shame, and what does it mean to be American?

Today was the first meeting of Gottlieb’s “Theory after 9/11” Seminar. During class we read Slavoj Zizek’s In These Times article What Rumsfeld Doesn’t Know That He Knows About Abu Ghraib. Zizek argues that despite the claims of the media … Continue reading

Posted in English 575 Post 9/11 Theory (Winter 2008), Philosophy 599: Creative Demcracies (Spring 2007) | 3 Comments