English & Women Studies, UW

Sins of the Father: American Culture in a Time of Terror

Throughout American history, narratives about fathers and sons have provided compelling frameworks for telling stories about who we are as Americans. Whether stories of rebellion, restoration, correction, or continuation, the relationships between fathers and sons have structured how we, as a culture, talk about continuity, change, and hope for the future. This lecture will explore what stories about fathers and sons look like in a post-September 11 environment and what those stories tell us about how collectively we understand ourselves as Americans.

Susan Jeffords is Professor of English and Women Studies at the University of Washington, where she also serves as Divisional Dean for the Social Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is the author of Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era (1994) and The Remasculinization of America: Gender and the Vietnam War (1989) and the coeditor of Seeing Through the Media: The Persian Gulf War (1994). She teaches courses in American popular culture, with a particular emphasis on Hollywood film, the Vietnam War, and feminism.