Prospects from Subordinate Unprivileged in Joseph O’Neill’s Novel Netherland

Many immigrants, nonwhite residents and incomers in the post-9/11 period have found both American and British societies turning out to be less than welcoming hosts. Shedding light on this theme through close reading of the novel Netherland by Joseph O’Neill is the focus of this article. The main aim is to foreground the physical and psychological damages of the 9/11 attacks and how they have put immigrants in the international spotlight. The impact of the attacks explored in several novels ranges from politics and the economy to culture and the media. Because both the architects and committers of the attacks were of non-American origin and non-European origin, the governments in the West on both sides of the Atlantic started to consider non-white populations as a threat, bringing them under scrutiny. Considered a serious threat, these populations have been subjected to the new policy of scrutinization. Media, whether American or British, participated in expanding this policy of securitization picturing immigrants negatively and warning society about their status as potentially dangerous ‘others’. Our research method consists of assessing the Netherlands as a 9/11 novel and a cultural narrative which tells how American and British societies have turned out unwelcoming hosts in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The profound material, cultural and psychological damage has given birth to a rich 9/11 literature that contests this demonizing of immigrant populations.