Transatlantic Fictions of 9/11 and the War on Terror: Images of Insecurity, Narratives of Captivity

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Extending the study of post-9/11 literature to include transnational perspectives, this book explores the ways in which contemporary writers from Europe as well as the USA have responded to the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the ensuing 'war on terror.' Transatlantic Fictions of 9/11 and the War on Terror' demonstrates the ways in which contemporary fiction has wrestled with anxieties about national and international security in the 21st century. Reading a wide range of novels by such writers as Amy Waldman, Michael Cunningham, Frdric Beigbeder, Ian McEwan, Joseph O'Neill, Moshin Hamid, Jos Saramago, Ricardo Menndez Salmn, J.M. Coetzee and Salman Rushdie, Susana Arajo explores how the rhetoric of the 'war on terror' has shaped recent representations of the city and how security discourses circulate transatlantically and transnationally. By focusing not only on 9/11 but also on the way subsequent events such as the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq are represented in fiction, this book demonstrates how notions of terror and insecurity have been absorbed, reworked or critiqued in fiction. Arajo examines to what extent transatlantic relations have reinforced or challenged new fictions of white western middle class captivity.

Reviews

This is truly an enchanting book. Apart from the strength that Arajos well-formulated and well-argumented working hypothesis presents, what is, perhaps, most striking in this work is that its writer manages to ... weave a complex nexus of literary mapping where the novels in and outside her corpus consistently interplay in fruitful dialogue ... What is more, her erudite analyses are complemented with theoretical, political and/or historical backgrounds and contexts, which make the book not only a fascinating, but also an informative read. * European Journal of American Studies *
Arajos attentiveness to the intertwined relationship between the concepts of terror and security in relation to the generic form of the captivity narrative, combined with her careful consideration of novels normally positioned outside of the canon of 9/11 literature, ensures that Transatlantic Fictions is an important text for those considering the wider issues of citizenship, urban space and visual politics in contemporary fiction. * Literature & History *
Arajo places 9/11 novels in a continuum of European and American captivity narratives born of perceived or actual threats to personal safety, cultural identity, and national security. Especially compelling is her assertion that Western captivity narratives invert the roles of captor and captive by configuring the Western subject as captive to amorphous sources of terror. This erudite, accessible study provides a vital perspective on a complex nexus of transnational issues, ideologies, and fictions. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * CHOICE *
Susana Arajos incisive and convincing study, Transatlantic Fictions of 9/11 and the War on Terror: Images of Insecurity, Narratives of Captivity views the 9/11 novel as contributing to a long and diverse literary history of European and American captivity narratives Arajos erudite and highly useful study illuminates how contemporary 9/11 fictions are reversing the role of captor and captive to depict Western subjects as being exceptionally vulnerable to global acts of terror and violence. With original close readings of critically acclaimed novels, this study offers new directions for further research into how the boundaries of the 9/11 novel may be expanded to account for US conceptions, both historical and contemporary, about its own vulnerability amidst territorial occupation and intervention. * Journal of American Culture *

Author Bio

Susana Arajo is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Comparative Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Lisbon, Portugal. She is the author of the poetry book, Dvida Soberana (2012) and of numerous articles in recognised journals. She co-edited the books, Trans/American, Trans/oceanic, Trans/lation (2010), Inseguranas no Espao Urbano (2012) and Fear and Fantasy in a Global World (2015) as well as several special issues in international periodicals.