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BY JACQUELINE SMALL

In print | Published September 23, 2010

Few people would name literature as one of the things that was impacted by the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11th, 2001, but according to Elizabeth Anker, assistant professor of English at Cornell University, modern novels are very much influenced by the effects of terrorism.

On Monday afternoon, Anker gave a lecture to a small number of students and professors titled “Mad Men, Falling Men, and the 9/11 Novel,” describing the effects of terrorism and how it is reflected in modern popular culture.

According to Anker, books like “Saturday,” by Ian MacEwan, “Netherland,” by Joseph O’Neill and the critically-acclaimed television series “Mad Men” are all influenced by changing world views following the attacks. Eric Song, an English professor who helped bring Anker to campus, attributed the low attendance to the time of the lecture, and said people were probably eating dinner between 4:15 and 6:15.

Anker graduated from Hope College, received a J.D. from the University of Chicago and practiced law before becoming “disillusioned by it,” according to English professor Eric Song, who introduced her. She then received a Ph.D in English from the University of Virginia. Now she is working on an article about novels based around Sept. 11th. At the end of the lecture, she welcomed questions and criticisms, which she called “very helpful” in clarifying her argument.

Anker primarily discussed the way the “9/11 novels” depict life on the changed home front after war. Specifically, she said, “These novels focus on the crises that arise from meditating on the legacy of American-ness in the aftermath of 9/11.” One of the most important of these crises is that of frustrated masculinity. She pointed out that in the fall of the World Trade Center, even stereotypically masculine heroic workers, such as firefighters and police officers, were unable to prevent much of the devastation.

“In fact, some might say that the word ‘hero’ is rendered farcical by the attacks,” Anker said, before quoting from a novel in which one character implores another not to use the word to describe him.
Don Draper, the philandering protagonist of “Mad Men,” is a sort of antidote to this dilemma.

Though the show is set in the 1960s, Anker claims that it exemplifies a sort of nostalgic yearning for a more innocent time. Although Don Draper is able to engage in many immoral activities, he is still seen as a kind of hero.

Anker also said that the 1960s are now seen as a golden age by many people, who remember it as a simpler time. Even the Obama family has drawn parallels between themselves and the Kennedys: both presidents were young, offered hopeful messages, and were outside the traditional mold of the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant.

Song enjoyed the lecture, and called it “fantastic,” but not everyone was as pleased. Danielle Charette ’14, a student who had a conversation with Anker during the question and answer period, found the talk polarizing. “[Anker] seemed so hell-bent on believing every author agreed with her that the West was at fault for 9/11 that I think she may have overlooked crucial aspects of the novels. … It’s possible to enter a sociological/literary discussion of America in the post 9/11 world without inherently blaming Americans for 9/11. I found it peculiar that there was no mention of terrorism [or] religious extremism,” she said in an e-mail.

Patrick Ammerman ’14 thought the lecture was edifying.

“I thought her presentation was a very good and… her talk showed its potential in becoming a great article,” Ammerman said.

Song, who was responsible for bringing Anker to campus, initially approached her to ask for a lecture on her work in her field of study, human rights.

“The English Department thought Professor Anker would be a great guest lecturer at Swarthmore because of the primary focus of her scholarship.” Anker asked to speak on this topic instead, since it was more relevant to her current research.

“She told me that she’d be happy to share her scholarship, but that she’d also be excited to share new work about Mad Men and the 9/11 novel,” Song said. “The English Department thought that this was such a tantalizing and timely subject that we took her up on the offer.”

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