Post-9/11 Historical Fiction and Alternate History Fiction
Transnational and Multidirectional Memory
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Beschreibung
Drawing on theories of historiography, memory, and diaspora, as well as from existing genre studies, this book explores why contemporary writers are so fascinated with history. Pei-chen Liao considers how fiction contributes to the making and remaking of the transnational history of the U.S. by thinking beyond and before 9/11, investigating how the dynamics of memory, as well as the emergent present, influences readers’ reception of historical fiction and alternate history fiction and their interpretation of the past. Set against the historical backdrop of WWII, the Vietnam War, and the War on Terror, the novels under discussion tell Jewish, Japanese, white American, African, Muslim, and Native Americans’ stories of trauma and survival. As a means to transmit memories of past events, these novels demonstrate how multidirectional memory can be not only collective but connective, as exemplified by the echoes that post-9/11 readers hear between different histories of violence that thenovels chronicle, as well as between the past and the present.
Drawing on theories of historiography, memory, and diaspora, as well as from existing genre studies, this book explores why contemporary writers are so fascinated with history. Pei-chen Liao considers how fiction contributes to the making and remaking of the transnational history of the U.S. by thinking beyond and before 9/11, investigating how the dynamics of memory, as well as the emergent present, influences readers’ reception of historical fiction and alternate history fiction and their interpretation of the past. Set against the historical backdrop of WWII, the Vietnam War, and the War on Terror, the novels under discussion tell Jewish, Japanese, white American, African, Muslim, and Native Americans’ stories of trauma and survival. As a means to transmit memories of past events, these novels demonstrate how multidirectional memory can be not only collective but connective, as exemplified by the echoes that post-9/11 readers hear between different histories of violence that thenovels chronicle, as well as between the past and the present.
Highlights the evolving relationship between memory, identity, and violence in a transnational age Provides an overview of the boom in American historical fiction and alternate history fiction Takes a decentered approach to studying post-9/11 fiction through the lens of ethnic minority groups
Autor*in
Pei-chen Liao
Themen in »Post-9/11 Historical Fiction and Alternate History Fiction«
9/11 alternate history fiction historical fiction post-9/11 fiction contemporary American fiction transnational lens The Plot Against America Philip Roth American history
Stimmen zu »Post-9/11 Historical Fiction and Alternate History Fiction«
“This book adds a new dimension to the study of the writing of 9/11 and, more generally, to our understanding of the connections between literature and trauma, memory and crisis. It is likely to become required reading for anyone interested in what happened on and after 11 September, 2001 as well as what has been remembered, imagined and written in response. It is, quite simply, a breakthrough in its field.” (Richard Gray, Fellow of the British Academy, UK, and author of After the Fall: American Literatures Since 9/11 (2011))
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