Eli Jelly-Schapiro is Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Carolina, where he teaches contemporary literature and culture.

"With a lucid and accessible tour of political theory . . . [Jelly-Schapiro] prepares his readers for astute interpretations of several recent fictional texts and films . . .  The book is cultural studies at its best."

• Acknowledgments ixIntroduction: History, Narrative, and the War on Terror 11 • “All the World Was America”: The Long History of Homeland Security 202 • “A General Principle of Democracy”: Terror and Colonial Modernity 443 • “Choc en Retour”: Security, Terror, Theory 744 • “Vanishing Points”: Postcolonial America 1055 • “This Is Our Threnody”: Writing History as Catastrophe 140Epilogue: Rupture and Colonial Modernity 163Notes 179Bibliography 203

Eli Jelly-Schapiro is Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Carolina, where he teaches contemporary literature and culture.

"With a lucid and accessible tour of political theory . . . [Jelly-Schapiro] prepares his readers for astute interpretations of several recent fictional texts and films . . .  The book is cultural studies at its best."

• Acknowledgments ixIntroduction: History, Narrative, and the War on Terror 11 • “All the World Was America”: The Long History of Homeland Security 202 • “A General Principle of Democracy”: Terror and Colonial Modernity 443 • “Choc en Retour”: Security, Terror, Theory 744 • “Vanishing Points”: Postcolonial America 1055 • “This Is Our Threnody”: Writing History as Catastrophe 140Epilogue: Rupture and Colonial Modernity 163Notes 179Bibliography 203