Introduction: The Geography of Anger and the Diaspora of Terrorism

Abstract

The central concern of this book is the impact of global terror networks and state counter-terrorism on 20th-century fiction and culture. It takes a comparative approach, examining literary responses to terrorism and counter-terrorism in writing by contemporary Indian and U.S. authors. The 9/11 (September 11, 2001) attacks became a “master signifier” of terrorism that was echoed after the attacks by militants in Mumbai in 2008, attacks that were quickly dubbed “26/11,” with the implication they were “India’s 9/11”. However, the political violence ensuing from the Kashmir conflict at the root of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks goes back much further than 9/11, a history that is discussed in light of contemporary fiction by Indian-born authors who divide their time between the United States and India, whose writing bears comparison with American fiction reflecting the problem of political violence. Beyond this, both contemporary political violence and counter-terrorism are transnational and involve dispersed global networks. Unlike other studies which have focused mainly on the response to the 9/11 attacks in writing from the United States1, this book is global and comparative in its approach, and emphasizes the contemporary fictional depiction of the transnational character of terrorism and counter-terrorism throughout the long 20th century, rather than only the literary reaction to the 9/11 attacks, even if the attacks on the World Trade Center do figure, most prominently, in Chapter 5, which takes up Thomas Pynchon’s most recent novel, Bleeding Edge.