‘My City of Ruins’. Religion and Ideology in the American Songs Composed After 9/11 (2001-2003)

  • Mario Gerolamo Mossa University of Pisa
DOI: https://doi.org/10.6093/sigma.v0i6.9487
Keywords: religion, ideology, United States, popular music, terrorism

Abstract

Between 2001 and 2003, the world of American popular music tried to process the collective trauma of 9/11 by adopting representational strategies based on the manipulation of the Judeo-Christian imagery and the stereotyping of the Muslim ‘Other’. By combining the tools of musical-poetical analysis and ideological criticism, the article aims at comparing the opposite artistic outcomes originated from this ambiguous “religious aesthetics”, recognizable both in the vindictive reactionarism of country music (e.g. Where were you (when the world stopped turning)? by Alan Jackson) and in the anti-war multiculturalism of rock (e.g. The Rising by Bruce Springsteen).

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Author Biography

Mario Gerolamo Mossa, University of Pisa

Mario Gerolamo Mossa is a PhD candidate in Italian Studies at the University of Pisa, with a comparative and interdisciplinary project focused on the relationship between meter and performance in Italian contemporary poetry. In 2019 he was the editor of the complete edition of Elena Salibra’s poetry (Dalla parte dei vivi. Poesie 2004-2014, Manni), while in 2021 he published the monograph Bob Dylan: Like a Rolling Stone. Philology, Composition, Performance (Mimesis).

Published
2022-11-28
How to Cite
MossaM. G. (2022). ‘My City of Ruins’. Religion and Ideology in the American Songs Composed After 9/11 (2001-2003). SigMa - Rivista Di Letterature Comparate, Teatro E Arti Dello Spettacolo, (6), 61-86. https://doi.org/10.6093/sigma.v0i6.9487
Issue
No 6 (2022): Like a Prayer. Forms of the Religiousness and the Sacred in Contemporary Writings and Arts (1990-2020)
Section
Sezione monografica

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