"In the Shadow of No Towers". Coping with National Trauma through a Comic (PDF)

Academic Paper from the year 2015 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2.3, University of Würzburg, course: 9/11 and Ground Zero Fiction, language: English, abstract: September 11, 2001 was incredibly devastating nationally, as well as internationally but one can only imagine the intensity of horror the local New Yorkers were confronted with, resulting in a long-lasting trauma for most. One of those individuals who has spent most of his life in NY and was very present when the planes struck the towers is Art Spiegelman. Like most Americans, the events that day left him traumatized leading him to attempt to deal with 9/11 by portraying his emotions in the autobiographic post-traumatic comic book titled In the Shadow of No Towers. In an interview with The Progressive shortly after the release he stated "This book is fragment of diary. In making the book, I'm trying to work my way out."

This research paper will deal with his attempt to cope with personal and national Trauma and if depicting it in a comic can be justified as an appropriate medium. The issues when portraying Trauma as a comic and Spiegelman's technique will be discussed. It will also provide a structural analysis and show themes and specific events concerning his 9/11 experience. It will also give an insight and an analysis of the many segments in which the U.S. Government's actions following 9/11 are heavily criticized. Lastly the undeniable similarities as well as the differences between In the Shadow of No Towers and his most famous work Maus will be examined.