Representations of Pre- and Post-9/11 New York City in Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin

Abstract

Abstract The article sets out to investigate the way in which Colum McCann depicts New York City in his 2009 novel, Let the Great World Spin. While starting from the idea that the novel falls in the category of 9/11 fiction, the article will argue that it makes clever use of the technique of deterritorialization in order to look at the USA from an external point of view, interrogating in this way American international relations and extraterritorial citizenship, both before and after 9/11. The article will also argue that by starting from the trauma of 9/11, which is, however, circuitously tackled in the novel, McCann questions the myth of American exceptionalism, pointing at unresolved US domestic affairs, as well as harrowing external affairs, which have resulted in countless traumas.