ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 argues that the sublime images created by terrorist violence draw on references to past images of desolation and destruction as a form of remaking. This is considered in relation to the destruction of historical landmarks by terrorist groups, particularly Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, but also through the study of 9/11 literature in order to demonstrate the attraction toward the event as a historical watershed. Many literary responses are considered including Don DeLillo’s Falling Man, Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Joseph O’Neil’s Netherland, Helen Schulman’s A Day at the Beach , Ken Kalfus’ A Disorder Peculiar to the Country , Teju Cole’s Open City , and Thomas Pynchon’s The Bleeding Edge. These works of fiction often position the moment as a sublime impasse that fundamentally reshapes the future. In so doing, these texts, I argue, establish the past as a moment of lost innocence to which their protagonists are forever seeking a return. Thus, this chapter demonstrates the way in which 9/11 literature often echoes the melancholic sublime.
