The Sleeper Agent in Post-9/11 Media

1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-3-031-11515-8
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 323 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 548 g

This book examines the figure of the sleeper agent as part of post-9/11 political, journalistic and fictional discourse. There is a tendency to discuss the terroristic threat after 9/11 as either a faraway enemy to be hunted down by military force or, on the other hand, as a ubiquitous, intangible threat that required constant alertness at home. The missing link between these two is the sleeper agent – the foreign enemy hiding among US citizens. By analyzing popular television shows, several US comic books, and a broad variety of Hollywood films that depict sleeper agents direct or allegorically, this book explores how a shift in perspective—from terrorist to sleeper agent—brings new insights into our understanding of post-9/11 representations of terrorism. The book’s interdisciplinary focus between media studies, cultural studies, and American studies, suggests that it will find an audience in a variety of fields, including historical research, narratology, popular culture, as well asmedia and terrorism studies.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ossa, Vanessa

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Gattungen
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Populärkultur
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction.- 2. Fiction, 9/11, and the Sleeper Agent.- 3. The Sleeper in Hollywood Cinema after 9/11.- 4. The Sleeper in US TV Series after 9/11.- 5. The Sleeper in Comic Books after 9/11.- 6. Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Vanessa Ossa is Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Applied Science in Cologne, Germany. She is a former member of the Collaborative Research Center 923 “Threatened Order—Societies under Stress,” in Tübingen and co-editor of, “Threat Communication and the US Order after 9/11: Medial Reflections.” Her research focuses on narrative representations of post-9/11 terrorism and transmedial narratology, with a particular interest in films, fictional television, comic books, video games, and related participatory practices.