trauma; 9/11; Art Spiegelman; comics; memory; national symbols; G. W. Bush; nationalism; health; therapy

This paper deals with the representation of the American national trauma of 9/11 in Art Spiegelman?s comic book/graphic novel In the Shadow of No Towers. Although it points out analogies with Spiegelman?s graphic novel Maus, it sees In the Shadow of No Towers as a unique artistic work whose difference from Maus is determined by the author?s direct experience of the traumatic event. The paper discusses the most important symbols in the book, such as the recurrent image of the glowing Tower, the motif of falling men, and smoke. The paper emphasizes the strong anti-Bush tone of Spiegelman?s work, which rejects the official presentation of 9/11 as serving the purposes of political and ideological propaganda. It shows how the traumatic event of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center is transformed into narrative memory, the result of the author?s therapeutic acting out of the historical trauma.

This paper deals with the representation of the American national trauma of 9/11 in Art Spiegelman?s comic book/graphic novel In the Shadow of No Towers. Although it points out analogies with Spiegelman?s graphic novel Maus, it sees In the Shadow of No Towers as a unique artistic work whose difference from Maus is determined by the author?s direct experience of the traumatic event. The paper discusses the most important symbols in the book, such as the recurrent image of the glowing Tower, the motif of falling men, and smoke. The paper emphasizes the strong anti-Bush tone of Spiegelman?s work, which rejects the official presentation of 9/11 as serving the purposes of political and ideological propaganda. It shows how the traumatic event of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center is transformed into narrative memory, the result of the author?s therapeutic acting out of the historical trauma.