Leiden University Student Repository

Grootveld, Thijs (2019)

Thomas Pynchon's Bleeding Edge and Cormac McCarthy's The Road as Dystopian 9/11 Fiction

Master thesis | North American Studies (MA)

This thesis discusses two novels that use the dystopian genre to critically reflect on the political and social response to 9/11: Thomas Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge (2013) and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006). These novels depict a United States that has been, or is going to be, devastated by a catastrophe that is seemingly, or in Pynchon’s case explicitly, inspired by 9/11 and the political and social response to it. This thesis examines how and with what effect these novels use dystopian themes and imagery to respond to the way American society is changed socially and politically because of political efforts to unify it and security measures that were taken in response to 9/11, and critically reflect on the political and social consequences of the attacks.

9/11

trauma theory

dystopian fiction

american fiction

dystopian 9/11 fiction

dystopian 9/11

Author

Grootveld, Thijs

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Supervisors

Kardux, Joke

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en