Terrorism And The Contemporary American Novel A Postmodernist Appraisal Of Don Dellilos Falling Man (2007) And John Updikes Terrorist (2006)

Terrorism centres on both the tactic and strategy to commit acts of violence. It is viewed as amethod of combat. It is a means to achieve certain targets. Terrorist acts aim to induce a state offear in the victims which are not necessarily the actual targets of the terrorists. The terroristevents on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the United States of America onSeptember 11, 2001 have drawn the attention of many American writers. Writing about theseterrorist events evolved into a field known as terrorism and America writing. This studydiscusses Don Dellilo‘sFalling Man (2007) and John Updike‘s Terrorist (2006) asContemporary American novels that show awareness of terrorism. The study is a qualitativeresearch that limits itself to two texts, Falling Man and Terrorist. This study adoptspostmodernist framework as the theoretical basis for the assessment of characters and societalissues in the selected texts and how they grapple with such issues as violence, infidelity, andcharacters reaction to the economic state of America, poor housing and poor educational systemas reasons to commit acts of violence. The study proceeds on the assumption that offering anaesthetic representation on these issues demonstrates the writers craft in creating a distinct modeof reading the event. As such using postmodernisttools in reading post 9/11 novels creates acritical view on how these events that are not only violent but appear irrational and complicatedbecome a discourse worthy of literary study. Based on the above premise, this study finds outthat most issues discussed in both texts in many ways indict America and its way of handlingsocio-cultural, economic and political issues. The study also finds that in order to be heard and todraw attention to America‘s way of life, terrorists resolve to commit terrorist activities.

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