Teaching 9/11 and Its Aftermaths: Options for Teaching

Essays for teaching literature, art, and other texts of 9/11 and the war on terror

The events of September 11, 2001, belong to the realm of history rather than memory for most college students today. Yet teaching the literature and culture of 9/11 requires more than historical contextualization of a singular event; it calls for consideration of historical forces and fields of power that extend in many directions, including into the present.

The essays in this volume offer new readings of familiar texts, challenge the canon of 9/11 literature, and use literary studies methodologies to consider not only fiction and poetry but also oral histories, photography, film, video games, and other forms. Placing particular emphasis on Arab American and South Asian American experiences and incorporating voices from outside the United States, essays examine the Islamophobia, xenophobia, and imperialism of 9/11 discourse. The volume's varied texts and approaches help students question the notion of a single, authoritative narrative of 9/11 and its aftermaths.

This volume contains discussion of fiction including Don DeLillo's Falling Man, Deborah Eisenberg's Twilight of the Superheroes, Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Laila Halaby's Once in a Promised Land, Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, Uzma Jalaluddin's Ayesha at Last, Mohja Kahf's The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf, Yasmina Khadra's The Sirens of Baghdad, Thomas Lehr's September: Mirage, Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin, Joseph O'Neill's Netherland, Ahmed Saadawi's Frankenstein in Baghdad, Kamila Shamsie's Burnt Shadows and Home Fire, Dana Spiotta's Stone Arabia, Jess Walter's The Zero, Amy Waldman's The Submission, Colson Whitehead's Zone One; poetry including Mohja Kahf's E-Mails from Scheherazad, Philip Metres's Sand Opera, Solmaz Sharif's Look, and works by Meena Alexander, Imtiaz Dharker, Martín Espada, and Suheir Hammad; nonfiction including The 9/11 Commission Report, Aftermaths: College Writers Writing 9/11, Ward Churchill's "'Some People Push Back': On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," Richard Rodriguez's Darling, Mohamedou Ould Slahi's Guantánamo Diary; graphic novels including Danica Novgorodoff's Refresh, Refresh, Art Spiegelman's In the Shadow of No Towers, and George A. Walker's Book of Hours; films including Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, Karan Johar's My Name is Khan, Liza Johnson's Return, Spike Lee's 25th Hour, James Marsh's Man on Wire, Mira Nair's "September 11—India," Eli Roth's Hostel, Ryan Piers Williams's The Dry Land; comedy specials including Allah Made Me Funny and the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour; video games including Call of Duty, Homefront, Medal of Honor, Spec Ops: The Line, and Virtual Jihadi; as well as the exhibition Ode to the Sea: Art from Guantánamo.