Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Communication, Liminality, And Hope: The September 11th Missing Person Posters, Kevin Jones, Kenneth S. Zagacki, Todd V. Lewis

Faculty Publications - Department of Communication and Cinematic Arts

Immediately following the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, family and friends of victims missing in the towers began placing ‘‘Missing Person Posters’’ of their loved ones around New York City. In this paper, we argue that the posters represent a powerful response to a traumatic and in some ways unprecedented situation, a response that transformed the death of loved ones from a reality or future certainty into a probability made possible by the searchers’ desire, emotions, or imagination. We demonstrate how the posters, operating in the ‘‘subjunctive’’ voice, transformed the ‘‘ liminal’’ space between life …