Beginnings in Jonathan Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and Alia Yunis’ The Night Counter
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1302.18Keywords:
9/11, post- 9/11 narratives, Edward Said, beginning theoryAbstract
Drawing on Edward Said’s “Beginnings theory,” which is the central thesis in his book Beginnings: Intention and Method (1975), several post- 9/11 narratives reflect means for perceiving how these various accounts foreshadow a new era in both literature and political discourse. These accounts constitute a “beginning,” to use a Saidian term, heralding a new vision of the Islamic (Arab)/Western representation; a shift from a “historical pattern.” In this study, the tension created by turning a “historical aboriginality” into personal representations is reevaluated from a Saidian perspective. Such post- 9/11 narratives lend themselves to manifesting how the interrelation between an “obligation” for narration and a “sympathetic imagination” create beginnings. To achieve this end, the study will examine two narratives: Jonathan Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2005) and Alia Yunis’ The Counter Night (2009). By advancing and investigating these narratives, the study aims at reaching new ideas about the representation of a major event in political history, namely: 9/11.
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