ABSTRACT

This narrative, recounting Moira’s experience of the events of 9/11, is quite familiar. Against the backdrop of what seemed to be an ordinary New York morning in September 2001, the crashing of two planes into the World Trade Center and the immediate access to this event provided by the media constituted a breach of normality. Almost everyone in the United States, provided they were old enough at the time and had some access to media, remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard ‘‘the news.’’ Moira’s narrative is of interest because it reveals what is considered normal, that is, ‘‘accounts of times when the expected is flouted, or when things somehow go awry, rely on a shared understanding (between narrator and audience) of what the normal and expected look like’’ (Mattingly et al. 2002: 745). What happens when such a shared understanding does not exist? What if the breach that constitutes an event as notable is not considered an exception because the vision of normality from which it deviates is that of only a privileged few?