The project focuses on novels that treat the attacks against New York and Washington on 11 September 2001. It proceeds from the position that literature, and in particular, the novel form, participates in societal debates and sheds new light on collective perceptions and values. The project examines how American so-called 9/11 novels have engaged with questions regarding the definition and debates over terrorism, and the ways in which these are interlinked with the dominant American national identity and cultural self-perception. The purpose of the study is, in part, to examine what these novels can teach us about American (and to some extent also Western) ideas and values and thereby provide clarity on current political developments and cultural phenomena. In part, the study seeks to test the social role of the novel.