The Culture of Laughter, the Culuture of Tears: September 11th Events Echoed on the Internet
The Culture of Laughter, the Culuture of Tears: September 11th Events Echoed on the Internet

Summary/Abstract: The author, following the already established anthropology of the Internet (or email being a part of the Internet) which observes these phenomena as a contemporary and widespread form of communication, understands both written and visual material that circles through email as a reflection of the popular culture in a world engaged in the process of globalisation through media which enable instant transfer of information from one corner of the world to the other. She is investigating almost immediate email responses (however, for the purpose of this paper only the humorous ones) to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, which took place on 11th September, and which arrived to Croatia merely a day or two after the event, dividing them into the global and the local ones. Those humorous correspondence is being interpreted as a Bahtinesque answer to the tragic events, as well as a popular and group ironical (and self-ironical) distance from the horrifying reality.

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