“Speak About Destruction”: Representing 9/11 in The Sopranos

Broadly definable as an interdisciplinary study of televisual texts, literature, and history, this thesis analyses David Chase’s The Sopranos (1999-2007) and its engagement of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. Tracing the show’s narrative and aesthetic roots to its pilot episode, I explore how 9/11 elicited both an alteration and an exaggeration of the show’s structural and symbolic elements. Furthermore, I illustrate the impact of televisual mediation on the act of viewership, demonstrating the manner in which The Sopranos and 9/11 newscasts employed authoritative narrative perspectives as a means of disseminating vital information to viewers. Methodologically, I employ a narratological approach to show through close textualanalysis how elements of location and sequential ordering inform the creation of unique story worlds, and how these story worlds operate symbiotically with viewers in creating meanings beyond the texts.