Terror i tvillingtårnene – dystopi og ironi? 9/11 i Darlah og En terrorist i senga

Abstract

Terror in the Twin Towers – dystopia and irony? 9/11 in Darlah and En terrorist i senga. Through globalization of our media society, children as well as adults are endlessly exposed to information and images from all over the world. In Norway, signs of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in USA on September 11th 2001 are now to be found in literature for children and young adults. With globalization theory and post-colonial theory I will examine how two novels present global challenges in general and 9/11 in particular. What does globalization mean for the construction of identity? Who are “we”, and who are “the others”? The novel for young adults, Darlah – 172 timer på månen [Darlah – 172 hours on the moon] (2008) by Johan Harstad, is a dystopia where 9/11 points forward to a full scale catastrophe for humanity. En terrorist i senga [There's a terrorist in my bed] (2008), a novel for children by Endre Lund Eriksen, makes explicit references to 9/11 – but with playfulness and ironic revelation of xenophobia. Both books use aliens from outer space as “the other”, but where Darlah presents a pessimistic view of our global future, En terrorist i senga is optimistic on behalf of the humankind.

Keywords: globalization, identity; national, apocalypse, xenophobia, humour, Norwegian children's literature, Johan Harstad, Endre Lund Eriksen