Introduction: Imagining Ground Zero

Abstract

This article discusses the cultural mediation, memorialization and representation of Ground Zero, New York. It considers the site not only in terms of its materiality, but also as a powerful thought concept and outlines how the space and its reception have been treated in other scholarly literature. It contextualizes this special section, which interrogates the ideologies and practices that shape the area, for not only do these craft dominant images of the space, they also challenge hegemonic representations of it. The article also points to strengths and weaknesses in extant work on Ground Zero and introduces the contributions to this special section, in order to situate them within a larger scholarly framework.