Irony about Tragedy: The Onion’s treatment of 9/11

Topos (Философско-культурологический журнал). 2012. Vol. 2. P. 153–167.

Хитров А. В.

In this paper the author analyses the materials that were pub- lished in the American satirical magazine The Onion in the period from 2006 till 2011 and mentioned September 11 terrorist attacks. The focus of the research is the persistence of 9/11 jokes five years after the tragedy occurred and later on. The jokes are classified basing on their subject-matter and rhetorical patterns. The author concludes that most of these jokes promote respect towards collective memory about the attacks and their victims.

The paper is based on the research that was funded by the Faculty of Philosophy of the National Research University Higher School of Economics in 2011.

Ключевые слова: смех, collective memory, коллективная память, ирония, травма, cultural trauma, культурная травма, humor, юмор, irony, культурная память, 9/11, collective trauma, коллективная травма, cultural memory, humour, 9/11, 11 сентября