Trauma and Transculturalism in Contemporary Fictional Memories of 9/11

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe 9/11 terrorist attacks, in their unexpectedness and cruelty, have turned into an unassimilated traumatic episode in the history of the Western world. From a literary perspective, many of the fictions that deal with 9/11 and its aftermath can be said to represent conspicuous attempts to come to terms with the trauma derived from 9/11. Drawing on trauma studies as well as on the epistemology engendered within the relatively recent framework of transculturalism, the present article seeks to analyze four representative post-9/11 fictions, namely Monica Ali’s Brick Lane (2003), Ian McEwan’s Saturday (2005), Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), and Amy Waldman’s The Submission (2011). The analysis shows that these fictions continue to dwell on the psychological and cultural traumas derived from the 9/11 events. Nevertheless, it is our contention that, more or less convincingly, the four fictions mentioned above point toward ways of learning to live with the new sociopolitical circumstances, rather than toward an existence irremediably trapped within the discourse of trauma. In other words, these novels move beyond the discourse of trauma that has so ubiquitously pervaded much post-9/11 literature. It is precisely in the attempts of these novels to go beyond the discourse of trauma where a transcultural positioning can be detected. This transcultural positioning foregrounds the inevitability of human exchanges even after the tensions ushered in by the terrorist attacks. It highlights the need to approach the “other” involved in the events and to accept difference and commonality, communication and silence, failure and success.