| Description |
1 online resource (vii, 203 pages) |
| Contents |
Chapter 1. Introduction: Beyond and Before 9/11: A Transnational Historical Turn -- Chapter 2. "The Second Coming": The Resurgence of the Historical Novel and American Alternate History -- Chapter 3. "America First": Fear, Memory, Activism, and Everyday Life in Philip Roths The Plot Against America -- Chapter 4. "In Memory of Toyoko H. Nozaka": Life Writing, Cultural Memory, and Historical Mediation in Julie Otsukas When the Emperor was Divine -- Chapter 5. "Walking a Tightrope": Illusion and Disillusion of American Innocence and Exceptionalism in Colum McCanns Let the Great World Spin -- Chapter 6. "What about the Names?": Post-9/11 Commemorative Culture and Islamaphobia in Amy Waldmans The Submission -- Chapter 7.: Conclusion: Connective Memories and Histories |
| Summary |
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 the novels chronicle, as well as between the past and the present |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Online resource; title from PDF title page (ProQuest Ebook Central, viewed on October 30, 2020) |
| Subject |
Alternative histories (Fiction), American -- History and criticism
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Historical fiction, American -- History and criticism
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September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001 -- Influence.
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Violence in literature.
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Alternative histories (Fiction), American
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Historical fiction, American
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Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.)
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Violence in literature
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| Genre/Form |
Literary criticism
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Criticism, interpretation, etc.
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Literary criticism.
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Critiques littéraires.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
3030524922 |
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9783030524920 |
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