Terror, Trauma, and the American ‘Everyman’

: Horror Literature after 9/11

Abstract

This research investigates the relationship between culture-specific fears included within contemporary Horror fiction, and how Trauma Theory can be effectively utilised to comment on those fears during the current Age of Terror. In the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, American culture shifted its primary fear from nuclear armed nation states to the shadowy and amorphous terror organisation of Al-Qaeda. This shift from nuclear vulnerability associated with Cold War anxieties to the invasion of terrorist-based fears has been extensively studied in relation to both Horror cinema and Trauma literature. This study applies Trauma Theory to Horror texts while acknowledging the political climate that influenced the creation of each. It also follows the structure offered by Horror film critics, and their investigation of the genre on screen, which is of critical importance to the continuing study of American Horror literature post-9/11. Through critical close reading of Stephen King’s The Institute, T. J. Newman’s Falling, Ania Ahlborn’s Brother, and Kealan Patrick Burke’s Kin this thesis establishes three prominent cultural fears of the United States post-9/11: the loss of privacy and civil liberties through the extension of powers granted to the intelligence apparatus; the Gothic-based fear of the (Arab) ‘Other’; and the atavism of rural Americans as democratic hypocrisy. These fears are then connected to wider trends in Trauma Theory such as (but not limited to) Michele Balaev’s concept of the ‘everyman’ figure; E. Ann Kaplan’s readings of healing through Trauma; and Susannah Radstone’s mimetic-model of trauma, before then being contextualised through including the wider political climate that dictate both the growth of Horror literature and Trauma Theory disciplines. In so doing, this thesis presents an interdisciplinary approach to reading fiction in the wake of 9/11, and the critiques and comments Horror literature then makes of the wider American culture.

Date of Award	2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Dundee
Supervisor	Daniel Cook (Supervisor) & Johanna Linsley (Supervisor)