How Enron collapsed at Ground Zero: tangled narratives in the new century

This article explores how narratives of the collapse of Enron Corp. were informed and influenced by the attacks of September 11, 2001, which occurred just a few months prior. Directly and indirectly, consciously and unconsciously, people describing the bankruptcy from a variety of angles made frequent analogies to “9-11” through imagery of implosion and collapse, and by comparing and even equating the causes and consequences of each of these “devastating” events. Developing the concept of “tangled narratives,” the study discusses how the Enron and September 11 narratives might best be understood as inter-tangled, and ends with a reflection on the idea of the tangle as a methodological tool in History and the study of culture and narrative