'Glocalization' in post-9/11 literature. "Burnt shadows" by Kamila Shamsie

Abstract

Global terrorism is a complex phenomenon, its roots going back to long before the terrorist attacks of 9/11, while its sequels are opening new paths in the fields of both fiction and literary and cultural studies. To better understand some of the global processes, and how they are represented in contemporary literature, I proposed the expression glocalization novels as a theoretical construct that permits the incorporation of the narrative’s differential characteristics about terrorism in a globalized society. In Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie, the notion of glocalization appears articulating general tendencies with global impact (the Nuclear Bomb, the Cold War, North American neo-colonialism in Southeast Asia, global terrorism, etc.) join with a direct impact on local lives that restructures and transmutes the meanings of individual or social actions. Fictions by intertwining the specific with the global help us to gain a more indepth understanding of the global and its local complexity.