Remembering 9/11 ― Terror, Trauma and Social Theory

Can you remember 9/11 and the impact of the images of the planes flying into the Twin Towers? Tracing cultural memories, Victor Seidler explores an embodied social theory that is alive to fear, loss, vulnerability and mourning, and questions how these narratives reflected a dominant masculinity unprepared to show any sign of weakness. Thinking across the boundaries of individual and cultural trauma, he discusses a psychosocial theory that listens to a diversity of voices shaped by the tragedy. Seidler also engages with questions of Islam, modernity and fundamentalism to analyse the relationship between the East and West, as well as highlighting the neoconservative influences in the wars following 9/11.

Victor Jeleniewski Seider is Professor Emeritus of Social Theory in the Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths University of London, UK. He has written widely in the areas of social theory and philosophy; gender (in particular relation to men and masculinities); psychoanalysis and embodiment; ethics and cultural memory; and intercultural dialogue.