This presentation analyzes the events of 9/11 and American responses to it as an example of the hyperbolic hypermodern. Utilizing rhetorical history and theory, the speaker argues that late modernity conceives itself along the topos of limit vs. limitlessness, or self-doubt (apocalyptic fear) vs. hubris (boundless optimism). He argues that late modernity is a site for wild vacillations and deep polarizations that can be seen in such disparate artifacts as the verbal logos of Fortune 500 companies, the building of the World Trade Center, the actions of Al Queda, the Baghdad wars, and the proliferation of social and economic crises.

Ralph Cintron is Associate Professor in the Department of English at University of Illinois at Chicago. Professor Cintron is well-known for his ethnographic work on Latino communities, and he is the author of Angel’s Town: Chero Ways, Gang Life, and Rhetorics of the Everyday. He is also working on a book tentatively entitled Work Fields in the New Economy, which is based on fieldwork that cuts across social classes, from CEOs to members of marginalized communities. To learn more about Professor Cintron, visit: www.uic.edu/depts/engl/faculty/cintron.html

Click here for information about Professor Cintron's CCR Master's Class.