ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter identifies the emergence of a striking trend in the post-9/11 literary landscape, where books about the abduction, prolonged captivity, and sexual abuse of a female victim are growing in popularity and receiving critical acclaim. At the end of each text, the female protagonist escapes her captor and to varying degrees, reintegrates back into her former life. This chapter situates these memoirs, literary novels, and young adult novels as a discrete literary genre. It argues situating them as a genre sets the stage for a nuanced analysis of the themes, and of their broader cultural significance. This introduction names this genre ‘urban captivity narratives,’ maps the theoretical lenses guide this project, and introduces the overarching argument that guides this project: urban captivity are texts that grapple with lingering impact of 9/11 in Canada and the United States, particularly the ways this response creates and gender-based oppression.
