The terrorist attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001 have had a profound impact on contemporary American literature and culture. With chapters written by leading scholars, 9/11: Topics in Contemporary North American Literature is a wide-ranging guide to literary responses to the attacks and its aftermath. The book covers the most widely studied texts, from Don DeLillo's Falling Man, Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Jonathan Franzen's Freedom to responses in contemporary American poetry and graphic narratives such as Art Spiegelman's In the Shadow of No Towers.

Including annotated guides to further reading, this is an essential guide for students and readers of contemporary American literature.

Introduction (Catherine Morley, University of Leicester, UK)
1. Don DeLillo, Falling Man (2007) (John Duvall, Purdue University, USA)
2. John Updike, Terrorist (2006) (Mark Eaton, Azusa Pacific University, USA)
3. Laila Halaby, West of the Jordan (2003) (Amal Talaat Abdelrazak, Alexandria University, Egypt)
4. Graphic Fictions: Art Spiegelman, In the Shadow of No Towers (2004), Will Eisner et al, 9/11: Artists Respond (2002) and Alissa Torres, American Widow (2008) (David Brauner, University of Reading, UK)
5. Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2004) (Debra Shostak, Wooster College, USA)
6. Jay MacInerney, The Good Life (2006) and Ken Kalfus, A Disorder Peculiar to the Country (2006) (Kristian Versluys, University of Ghent, Belgium)
7. Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin (2009) (Hamilton Carroll, University of Leeds, UK)
8. Jonathan Franzen, Freedom (2010) (Paul Jenner, University of Loughborough, UK)
9. American Poetry After 9/11 (Ann Keniston, Harvard University, USA)
10. Amy Waldman, The Submission (Catherine Morley, University of Leicester, UK)
Index