ABSTRACT
Propaganda by deed' becomes a way of conceptualizing the post-9/11 Pakistani novels' intervention into the espionage genre, especially in terms of this genre's representation of American and Pakistani relations. This chapter considers how an examination of these conventions also demands attention to the genre's historical locatedness. It explores the generic limits or constraints that post-9/11 American spy fiction both maintains and alters in order, first, to identify the plain-as-day ideological investments the genre endorses and reinforces, and, then, to suggest why these investments hold appeal. One contrasting way post-9/11 American spy fictions contend with the blurring of the boundary between the clandestine and citizens' realms, for instance, is through neutralizing the ideological stakes of clandestine activities. This neutralization comes about through the genre's 'social function', to borrow Bromley's phrase once again, which continues to depend on readerly identification, even after 9/11.
