Twenty-First Century Fictions of Terrorism
(Paperback)
Publishing Details
Twenty-First Century Fictions of Terrorism
By (Author) Arin Keeble
Edinburgh University Press
Edinburgh University Press
10th April 2026
United Kingdom
Classifications
Professional and Scholarly
Non Fiction
Terrorism, armed struggle
Literary studies: from c 2000
Physical Properties
Paperback
312
Width 156mm, Height 234mm
Description
Examining novels by celebrated authors, some neglected and some brand new texts, Arin Keeble offers a detailed analysis of the ways novels from around the world have represented terrorism in the early twenty-first century. Over five chapters, he uncovers a movement away from event-based narratives toward depictions of terrorism as a violent symptom or feature of twenty-first century world-systems and neoliberalism. Beginning with the early literary response to 9/11 and the 9/11 novel genre, the book moves through more recent depictions of the endless 'war on terror', state terror, white nationalist terror and historical narratives of terror that resonate in the current political climate. In doing so, it examines the changing ways literature has sought to make sense of both the reasons why terrorism occurs and the effects it has on victims, survivors and international and intercultural relations.
Reviews
A masterful synthetic account of how the fiction of the first quarter of the century has wrestled with the concept of terrorism. Keeble has written both a timely study and one that will influence literary histories of the period for years to come.
--Andrew Hoberek, University of MissouriLooking beyond the exceptionalism of 9/11, Keeble's theoretical interventions and meticulous close readings offer compelling contexts of trauma and structural violence demonstrating how terror gets framed between and across social and cultural institutions of government, media and industry.
--Amina Yaqin, University of ExeterAuthor Bio
Arin Keeble is a Lecturer in Contemporary Literature and Culture at Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland. His research interests include the literary and cultural representation of terrorism, crisis, neoliberalism and systemic violence. He is co-editor of Jesmyn Ward: New Critical Essays (2023) and is the author of Narratives of Hurricane Katrina in Context (2019), and his writing appears in journals such as Critique, Journal of American Studies, Post45, Parallax, Punk and Post-Punk, and TLS.
