In the shadow of 9 11 negotiating multiple identities in a Muslim American in the selected post 9 11 texts

Abstract

9/11 is rendered into public imagination as a traumatic event that demonstrates the trauma of collective grief. But it also resonate debates on the conflictedness of political orientations and identities in critical space. The divided or fragmented identities as a result of the rupture caused by the various political manifestations of the terror attacks are integral to the wider appeal of the representation of 9/11 as the fundamental tension in the way that people from all sections of the society understand the event. A large body of academic writing attests that the attempt to find meaning in the chaos that 9/11 ushered led to complex inquiries into its meaning and significance in history. One of the goals of this thesis was to investigate how the incident was culturally and politically negotiated and how it was constructed and reconstructed in fiction. Post 9/11 literature is striving to address the complexity and conflictedness that has much to say about the wider responses to 9/11. The thesis sought to analyse the representation of 9/11 in literature through the study of selected texts which encompasses the issues of identity, inner conflict in the realm of religion, culture and the construction of an other pertaining to 9/11. These novels through their representation of 9/11 open up new possibilities and allow for critical engagement with the event. newline