Under the Radar: Jess Walter's The Zero and the State of Irony and Satire after 9/11

This article explores a typically overlooked novel within the corpus of post-9/11 fiction, Jess Walter's The Zero (2006), and puts forward some hypotheses for this under-examination. The article suggests that the various debates that arose in the aftermath of 9/11¿the status of fiction after tr...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Resano, Dolores
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2017
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Barcelona
Repository:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/121725
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/121725
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Atemptats terroristes de l'11 de setembre, Estats Units d'Amèrica, 2001
Sàtira
Ironia
September 11 Terrorist Attacks, United States, 2001
Satire
Irony
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spelling Under the Radar: Jess Walter's The Zero and the State of Irony and Satire after 9/11Resano, DoloresAtemptats terroristes de l'11 de setembre, Estats Units d'Amèrica, 2001SàtiraIroniaSeptember 11 Terrorist Attacks, United States, 2001SatireIronyThis article explores a typically overlooked novel within the corpus of post-9/11 fiction, Jess Walter's The Zero (2006), and puts forward some hypotheses for this under-examination. The article suggests that the various debates that arose in the aftermath of 9/11¿the status of fiction after tragedy, the theses on the demise of irony and satire, the high expectations put on canonical authors to give meaning to the event, and standardized explorations of the figure of the terrorist Other¿all served to construct readings for The Zero that fell within prescriptive approaches to post-9/11 fiction and thus miss its highly subversive potential. While recent academic output is starting to explore The Zero in innovative ways, early reception failed to examine it conceptually and formally, favoring as it did a trauma studies approach that resulted in a bland analysis of the novel's focus on terrorist figures. This article offers a reading of The Zero through Bakhtin's theorization of satirical carnivalization, a practice that is especially suited to construct a dialogic, polyphonic and inquisitive narrative to not only question but dialogue with the post-9/11 United States.Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos (AEDEAN)2017info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/2445/121725Articles publicats en revistes (Llengües i Literatures Modernes i Estudis Anglesos)reponame:Dipòsit Digital de la UBinstname:Universidad de BarcelonaInglésReproducció del document publicat a: https://www.atlantisjournal.org/index.php?journal=atlantis&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=226Atlantis. Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies, 2017, vol. 39, num. 1, p. 133-152(c) Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos (AEDEAN), 2017info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/1217252026-05-27T06:46:51Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Under the Radar: Jess Walter's The Zero and the State of Irony and Satire after 9/11
title Under the Radar: Jess Walter's The Zero and the State of Irony and Satire after 9/11
spellingShingle Under the Radar: Jess Walter's The Zero and the State of Irony and Satire after 9/11
Resano, Dolores
Atemptats terroristes de l'11 de setembre, Estats Units d'Amèrica, 2001
Sàtira
Ironia
September 11 Terrorist Attacks, United States, 2001
Satire
Irony
title_short Under the Radar: Jess Walter's The Zero and the State of Irony and Satire after 9/11
title_full Under the Radar: Jess Walter's The Zero and the State of Irony and Satire after 9/11
title_fullStr Under the Radar: Jess Walter's The Zero and the State of Irony and Satire after 9/11
title_full_unstemmed Under the Radar: Jess Walter's The Zero and the State of Irony and Satire after 9/11
title_sort Under the Radar: Jess Walter's The Zero and the State of Irony and Satire after 9/11
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Resano, Dolores
author Resano, Dolores
author_facet Resano, Dolores
author_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Atemptats terroristes de l'11 de setembre, Estats Units d'Amèrica, 2001
Sàtira
Ironia
September 11 Terrorist Attacks, United States, 2001
Satire
Irony
topic Atemptats terroristes de l'11 de setembre, Estats Units d'Amèrica, 2001
Sàtira
Ironia
September 11 Terrorist Attacks, United States, 2001
Satire
Irony
description This article explores a typically overlooked novel within the corpus of post-9/11 fiction, Jess Walter's The Zero (2006), and puts forward some hypotheses for this under-examination. The article suggests that the various debates that arose in the aftermath of 9/11¿the status of fiction after tragedy, the theses on the demise of irony and satire, the high expectations put on canonical authors to give meaning to the event, and standardized explorations of the figure of the terrorist Other¿all served to construct readings for The Zero that fell within prescriptive approaches to post-9/11 fiction and thus miss its highly subversive potential. While recent academic output is starting to explore The Zero in innovative ways, early reception failed to examine it conceptually and formally, favoring as it did a trauma studies approach that resulted in a bland analysis of the novel's focus on terrorist figures. This article offers a reading of The Zero through Bakhtin's theorization of satirical carnivalization, a practice that is especially suited to construct a dialogic, polyphonic and inquisitive narrative to not only question but dialogue with the post-9/11 United States.
publishDate 2017
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2017
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/2445/121725
url https://hdl.handle.net/2445/121725
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Reproducció del document publicat a: https://www.atlantisjournal.org/index.php?journal=atlantis&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=226
Atlantis. Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies, 2017, vol. 39, num. 1, p. 133-152
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv (c) Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos (AEDEAN), 2017
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv (c) Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos (AEDEAN), 2017
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos (AEDEAN)
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos (AEDEAN)
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv Articles publicats en revistes (Llengües i Literatures Modernes i Estudis Anglesos)
reponame:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
instname:Universidad de Barcelona
instname_str Universidad de Barcelona
reponame_str Dipòsit Digital de la UB
collection Dipòsit Digital de la UB
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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score 15,300719

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