Narratives of Hurricane Katrina in Context: Literature, Film and Television

Description

This book analyzes six key narratives of Hurricane Katrina across literature, film and television from the literary fiction of Jesmyn Ward to the cinema of Spike Lee. It argues that these texts engage with the human tragedy and political fallout of the Katrina crisis while simultaneously responding to issues that have characterized the wider, George W. Bush era of American history; notably the aftermath of 9/11 and ensuing War on Terror. In doing so it recognizes important challenges to trauma studies as an interpretive framework, opening up a discussion of the overlaps between traumatic rupture and systemic or, “slow violence.” Front Matter ....Pages i-vii Introduction: Narrating Katrina in Context (Arin Keeble)....Pages 1-29 Intertextuality, Domesticity and the Spaces of Disaster in Salvage the Bones and Zeitoun (Arin Keeble)....Pages 31-63 “Won’t Bow: Don’t Know How”: New Orleans and American Exceptionalism in Treme (Arin Keeble)....Pages 65-90 Disposability, Criminality and Lawlessness in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Beasts of the Southern Wild and When the Levees Broke—A Requiem in Four Acts (Arin Keeble)....Pages 91-117 Conclusion: Traumatic Rupture and Slow Violence (Arin Keeble)....Pages 119-125 Back Matter ....Pages 127-136