THE WEST AND ITS OTHER: LITERARY RESPONSES TO 9/11 MOHAN G. RAMANAN University of Hyderabad mohan1949@rediffmail.com miscelánea: a journal of english and american studies 42 (2010)
THE WEST AND ITS OTHER: LITERARY
RESPONSES TO 9/11
MOHAN G. RAMANAN
University of Hyderabad mohan1949@rediffmail.com 125
Terror is now a part of our lives. Whether it is the bombing of defenceless villages in Afghanistan or Iraq, or the slaying of Daniel Pearl, terror is perpetrated by different people for different purposes. Terror is the employment of strategies to instill fear and insecurity in the victim. This can be achieved by the deliberate targeting of women and children as happened in Bosnia, in Bali and in Khandamal.
It can happen when a victim is transported to Gautanamo Bay or Al Ghraib and water-boarding and other forms of torture are practiced on him. The world is still reeling at the picture of American soldiers laughing at prisoners who are on the point of being attacked by a dog. So terror is terror whether one’s purpose is to defeat the axis of evil or jihad. This paper, therefore, deals with the impact of terror on people and the way in which literature on the subject has represented it. It begins with a consideration of the aftermath of 9/11 in America and the numbness which overtook American and British writers, explores the way those representations often demonize Islam when tackling Jihadi terror, the manner in which the representations underscore the Huntington thesis of the clash of civilizations and offer pseudo Islamic scholarship as a justification, or simply turn away from the large issues involved and concentrate on domesticity and the business of living as in Ian McEwan’s novel. The paper goes on to consider the impact of 9/11 on a Pakistani-American writer —Mohsin Hamid— who is torn between his admiration for things American and his fascination with the terror
miscelánea: a journal of english and american studies 42 (2010): pp. 125-136 ISSN: 1137-6368
Mohan G. Ramanan
attack on 9/11 and its impact on his Pakistani identity. The paper next considers texts from Afghanistan and Pakistan. These are
RESPONSES TO 9/11
MOHAN G. RAMANAN
University of Hyderabad mohan1949@rediffmail.com 125
Terror is now a part of our lives. Whether it is the bombing of defenceless villages in Afghanistan or Iraq, or the slaying of Daniel Pearl, terror is perpetrated by different people for different purposes. Terror is the employment of strategies to instill fear and insecurity in the victim. This can be achieved by the deliberate targeting of women and children as happened in Bosnia, in Bali and in Khandamal.
It can happen when a victim is transported to Gautanamo Bay or Al Ghraib and water-boarding and other forms of torture are practiced on him. The world is still reeling at the picture of American soldiers laughing at prisoners who are on the point of being attacked by a dog. So terror is terror whether one’s purpose is to defeat the axis of evil or jihad. This paper, therefore, deals with the impact of terror on people and the way in which literature on the subject has represented it. It begins with a consideration of the aftermath of 9/11 in America and the numbness which overtook American and British writers, explores the way those representations often demonize Islam when tackling Jihadi terror, the manner in which the representations underscore the Huntington thesis of the clash of civilizations and offer pseudo Islamic scholarship as a justification, or simply turn away from the large issues involved and concentrate on domesticity and the business of living as in Ian McEwan’s novel. The paper goes on to consider the impact of 9/11 on a Pakistani-American writer —Mohsin Hamid— who is torn between his admiration for things American and his fascination with the terror
miscelánea: a journal of english and american studies 42 (2010): pp. 125-136 ISSN: 1137-6368
Mohan G. Ramanan
attack on 9/11 and its impact on his Pakistani identity. The paper next considers texts from Afghanistan and Pakistan. These are