This dissertation examines the discourses of witnesses in their response to the exigence of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. I find significant clusters of terms and phrases that I read as reimagining the meaning of the attacks as well as the position of audience members who themselves rewrite the rhetorical situation or context in which the attacks take place. Traditional uses of the "rhetorical situation" model to understand the exigence of the attacks - as an objective external event that called discourse into being, a spectacular image that confused and traumatized audiences, or set of opportunities for President Bush to manipulate its meanings - continues to miss the vernacular, everyday texts of witnesses that struggle to articulate the exigence. Through conflicted and contradictory testimony analyzed in each chapter, I show how witnesses' discourses problematize the status of the exigence of the attacks, keeping its meaning open and dynamic. I conclude that audience members' discourse - the words and phrases of witnesses - may therefore be read as an "event" rather than as part of a stagnant situation. In this way, the rhetorical force of words maintains a capacity to transform the very context in which it takes place as opposed to being read by critics as just another instance of a pre-existing situation.

The tragedy and aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks are reflected in American apocalyptic horror films that have been produced since 2001. Because the attacks have occurred only within the past ten years, not much research has been conducted on the effects the attacks have had on the narrative and technological aspects of apocalyptic horror. A survey of American apocalyptic horror will include a brief synopsis of the films, commentary on dominant visual allusions to the 9/11 attacks, and discussion of how the attacks have thematically influenced the genre. The resulting study shows that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have shaped American apocalyptic horror cinema as shown through imagery, characters, and thematic focus of the genre.

In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11), Canada began the process of adjusting to the new security realities. It immediately became apparent that a preeminent issue that Canada would have to address was border security, especially the matter of maintaining a secure and open border with the United States (US). Canada has always recognized the necessity of an open border with the US but 9/11 reinforced just how vulnerable the border was to events beyond its control. Something needed to be done in order to sustain this vital trading relationship.<p>This thesis examines Canadas response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 but more specifically, Canadas efforts to maintain an open and secure border with the US in the immediate months and years following the attacks. This thesis is a case study of Canadas political efforts in that regard. The central focus is on Canadas initiation, negotiation and signing of the Smart Border Declaration (SBD) with the US on December 12, 2001. The purpose here is to examine the driving factors that lead Canada to engage in the smart borders process with the US and assess the importance of them.<p>This thesis concludes that Canadas response to the border crisis has revealed three significant trends in Canadas foreign and security policy. First, the SBD serves as a demonstration that Canadas national security has been significantly influenced by the security of economics and in particular, the special trade relationship that exists between Canada and the US. Secondly, the SBD is a familiar case of Canada taking the initiative in a North American policy matter and achieving an impressive policy triumph. Thirdly, it shows that the SBD represented an equally familiar instance of Canada taking action to provide certain assurances to the US that the security of Canada and the US is indivisible. In essence, it was a significant effort to appear as a reliable and responsible neighbour to the US.

This thesis examines the formation of national memory by exploring tenth anniversary television coverage of 9/11. By analyzing themes of nationalism that structure the television specials and create a positive national memory, this thesis argues that the national memory of 9/11 serves current national goals and develops myths of American exceptionalism while it ignores the negative consequences and realities of 9/11.

In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11), Canada began the process of adjusting to the new security realities. It immediately became apparent that a preeminent issue that Canada would have to address was border security, especially the matter of maintaining a secure and open border with the United States (US). Canada has always recognized the necessity of an open border with the US but 9/11 reinforced just how vulnerable the border was to events beyond its control. Something needed to be done in order to sustain this vital trading relationship.<p>This thesis examines Canadas response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 but more specifically, Canadas efforts to maintain an open and secure border with the US in the immediate months and years following the attacks. This thesis is a case study of Canadas political efforts in that regard. The central focus is on Canadas initiation, negotiation and signing of the Smart Border Declaration (SBD) with the US on December 12, 2001. The purpose here is to examine the driving factors that lead Canada to engage in the smart borders process with the US and assess the importance of them.<p>This thesis concludes that Canadas response to the border crisis has revealed three significant trends in Canadas foreign and security policy. First, the SBD serves as a demonstration that Canadas national security has been significantly influenced by the security of economics and in particular, the special trade relationship that exists between Canada and the US. Secondly, the SBD is a familiar case of Canada taking the initiative in a North American policy matter and achieving an impressive policy triumph. Thirdly, it shows that the SBD represented an equally familiar instance of Canada taking action to provide certain assurances to the US that the security of Canada and the US is indivisible. In essence, it was a significant effort to appear as a reliable and responsible neighbour to the US.

After 9/11, American stand-up comedy includes an increasing presence of Arab and Muslim comedians whose humor engages some of the recurring Islamophobic stereotypes circulating in the United States. These comedians combine self-deprecating humor and critique of American society. In doing so, they continue a rich tradition of American ethnic comedy, first used by other minorities to negotiate positive recognition of their ethnicities in American society. Although Arab and Muslim American stand-up comedy continues to grow, there is little academic analysis of it. My research attempts to fill this gap. I examine two video-recorded comedy tours, Allah Made Me Funny and The Axis of Evil, and draw on my experiences as participant observer at the 8th annual edition of the New York Arab American Comedy Festival. In my examination, I explore Arab and Muslim American stand-up comedy after 9/11 as a set of performances that challenge Islamophobic political discourses and contest stereotypical representations of Arabs and Muslims circulating in the media and popular culture. I begin this thesis with a discussion that defines Islamophobia after 9/11 as a pervasive ideological formation and explores the relationship between Islamophobia and stereotypical representations of Arabs and Muslims in the media and popular culture. Second, I identify political activism, personal narrative, as well as both artistic and historical opportunism as complex and interrelated dimensions of this stand-up comedy. Third, I examine how Arab and Muslim American comedians use humor to navigate the poles of their hyphenated identities and negotiate their belonging in American society. Finally, I examine the ways in which stand-up comedy reverses the discourses and representations of Islamophobia by drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of the carnivalesque.

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This study investigates forms of theatre/performance practice and training that can be seen to employ ‘trance’ states or engage the concept of ‘states of consciousness’ as performative practice. Trance is considered to be the result of sustained involvement with detailed information that is structurally organised, invoking imaginative and affective engagements that are maintained as interactions between the performer, other performers, the environment and audience of the performance. This thesis investigates trance performance through the conceptual lens of dramatic arts practice. In their respective cultural contexts, trance and theatre attain qualities considered as sacredness. Trance practice and performance, across a range of cultural contexts, are analysed as social processes - as elements of power relations that influence the performer, audience and environment of the performance. As performance traditions and events, this study will examine strands of praxis that can be drawn from Constantin Stanislavski to Lee Strasberg to Mike Leigh; from Antonin Artaud to Samuel Beckett and Jerzy Grotowski; from the Balinese trance performance form of Sanghyang Dedari in the 1930s to the 1990s; from the Channeling practitioners in the U.S. in the 1930s to Seth and Lazaris in the 1970s to the 1990s; and from traditions of military training, performance violence, and rhetoric associated with the attacks of the 11th of September 2001 in the U.S. and its aftermath.

Project and Report (M. Eng.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 236). Also available via the Internet.