Reading Trauma In McCann's Let The Great World Spin

Colum McCann(1965-)is one of the Irish writers receiving fame from his most vivid depiction of New York City and citizens.Let the Great World Spin,winning the 2009 U.S.National Book Award for Fiction and the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award,setting New York as the background to tell stories,mirroring the 9/11 event,from 11 narrators,has been one of McCann's most lucrative works.With its subtle touch on Twin Tower and the symbolic plane image,Let the Great World Spin is categorized under the 9/11 literature.Two grand topics have been covered in 9/11 literature,namely trauma and the Other,yet there is a gap between these two topics,each seemingly discussed separately from the other,thus rendering the discussion of "9/11" incident incomplete.This work is praiseworthy and outstanding in that it views and search for cures of trauma from a new perspective mediated with a discussion on the Other.The "spinning" metaphor in the title,dovetailing the theoretical angle of Derrida's differance,a change of difference and deference driven by divergence,widely applied to linguistics,politics,and ethics,is used by this paper to explore McCann's reflection on the existence of trauma and the hope for the survival of humanity.Chapter One studies a differed and deferred display of trauma scattered in time and space through a coordinate-like differance angle,including origin(the divergence of trauma),the horizontal axis(symbolic representations of trauma in New York City)and the vertical axis(temporal symptoms that traumatize individuals).Chapter Two observes the causes and problems that freeze and consolidate trauma in the society,through diagnosing a "close-off-mentality" shared by both novelists of 9/11 literature and characters in the work,a disconnected temporalization of a traumatism,and a refusal and failure to embrace the Other.Chapter Three analyzes McCann's quest for cures and hope,devised especially against the problems exposed in the second chapter and combined with the essence and ethics of differance,through a discussion of spreading trauma,connecting times,and cherishing respect,hospitality and friendship that recollect and liberate trauma.McCann's Let the Great World Spin is threaded with a major line of a wire walk on the Twin Tower,indicating his gaze and concern towards trauma as a major subject.His delineation has affirmed the existence of trauma and the ensuing pains from which people suffer,but still points out the hope and cure for a possibility of a survival of humanity.