Spectacular Resilience: Visualizations of Endurance in TIME Magazine's “Beyond 9/11”

Abstract

TIME Magazine's online 10-year commemoration of 9/11 “Beyond 9/11: Portraits of Resilience” utilizes narratives of spectacular resilience, which this essay defines as a visual stylization with four features: an economy of suffering based on media attention, loss figured in terms of a catastrophic event, a depoliticized national model for confronting loss, and superlative heroic action. I contrast the form of spectacular resilience in the memorial with minor forms of endurance visualized in periodicals about immigrant and migrant labor who cleaned Ground Zero and surrounding areas after 9/11. I end with the implications of linking resilience and visuality together in commemorative politics.

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Barry Brummett, Jaishikha Nautiyal, and Jenna Hanchey for helpful comments on earlier drafts. A previous version of this paper was presented at the Western States Communication Association Convention in 2015.

Notes

¹ You can view the tribute online at: Beyond 9/11. (2018). /TIME Magazine/, http://time.com/collection/beyond-911/.

² You can view the cover online at: Beyond 9/11. (2011, September 21), /TIME Magazine/, http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20110919,00.html.

³ You can view assorted images of the commemoration on iPad screens here: "Font Bureau. (2016, January 19). /TIME/, 9/11 10th anniversary special issue. /Fonts in Use/, https://fontsinuse.com/uses/965/time-9-11-10th-anniversary-special-issue.

⁴ You can view the making of the Riches family portraits here: TIME Photo Department (2011, September 11). Marco Grob on the making of Beyond 9/11: Portraits of Resilience. /TIME Magazine/, http://time.com/3780727/marco-grob-on-the-making-of-beyond-911-portraits-of-resilience/.

⁵ You can view the image of Segura online here: Gralla, J., & Ramos, V. M. (2013, November 30). 9/11 asbestos crews share fear of health coverage running out. /Newsday/. Retrieved from http://www.newsday.com/911-anniversary/9-11-asbestos-crews-share-fearof-health-coverage-running-out-1.6519945.

⁶ You can view images of Cardona online here: Otis, G. A., Sandoval, E., Rayman, G., & Greene, L. (2017, June 28). ICE frees pardoned Ground Zero worker set for deportation. /New York Daily News/. Retrieved from http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ice-frees-pardoned-ground-zero-worker-setdeportation-article-1.3285660.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marnie Ritchie

Marnie Ritchie is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Pacific Lutheran University. She is interested in visual representations in the U.S.'s War on Terror, critical surveillance studies, and critical affect studies. E-mail: [email protected]