The collapse of the Twin Towers ten years ago symbolizes the lapse into a permanent state of emergency at the beginning of the 21st century. The ensuing "War on Terror" ushered in the suspension of civil liberties in the United States, normalized a disregard for Inter - national Law and created serious doubts about the legitimacy of the Western world's hegemonic order. In the wake of 9/11, various crises have shattered established orders but also offered chances for the emergence of new paradigms. A new awareness of "States of Emergency" and "States of Crisis" reverberates through the social, the political, the cultural and literary realm. Volume 27 of REAL Yearbook brings together interdisciplinary contributions by established and upcoming scholars, using the concepts "state of exception" and "crisis" as new paradigms for the analysis of American society and culture, and covering, among others, the contemporary discourse of crisis, literary and other fictional responses, as well as theoretical discussions of key problems of legitimation and the lives of 'precarious others.'