A Review Of Post-9/11 Fiction: Reflecting A New Era In Global Literature

Abstract

This paper focuses on discourses and themes from fiction produced by major authors in American, Global, Western and Pakistani literature in the aftermath of 9/11. The paper examines if the unprecedented attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11, transformed the global geo-political scenario; it also, gave birth to a new genre i.e., post-9/11 literature. The study presents a critical review of post-9/11 approaches, cultural representations, and reflections in English fiction and how this incident moulded and confounded the relationship between various religious and national identities in present-day world history. The study analyzes the western discourse’s fixing of Muslims and Islam as the embodiment of violence and terrorism and a counter-narrative to the neo-imperialistic discourse of misrepresentation of Muslims by the diasporic literati generally from the South Asian region and specifically from Pakistan. Pakistani novelists through their works respond to the complex challenges faced by Muslims, who are stereotyped, marginalized, and suspected in the light of new identity construct on the basis of race, religion, and ethnicity in the wake of 9/11 developments. Hence, Pakistani works present a nuanced perception of the complexities of the post-9/11 politics and the far-reaching repercussions on a global level. Notable authors’ works reflect the victims’ experiences of pain, loss, guilt, trauma, complexities of emotional, cultural and political repercussions, fragmentation in society, uncertain chaotic situations, confusion and disorientation experienced by characters at large in the aftermath of 9/11.