American Poetry Against The Iraq War

The emergence of a large number of anti-war poems about America's war against Iraq marks the renaissance of American anti-war poetry. The poems produced by academics, workers, students, veterans, soldiers and others form a magnificent anti-war literary movement. Upon a study of the poetry about the Iraq War published between 2003 and 2006, critiques will be provided about the poets'bar-lifting endeavors to remold and subvert the canon of traditional war poetry.Some American poets dealt with in this thesis published anti-war poems before the Iraq war actually happened; some are soldier poets who based their writings on their battlefield experience. The thesis consists of five parts. Chapter One is the introduction. It presents a review of the scholarship on American war poetry that has been accomplished so far and introduces the texts for the study. Chapter Two discusses poems about the Iraq War that critique on U.S. foreign policies, American democracy and the enlistment of soldiers. Chapter Three discusses American poets'treatment of the battlefield, including their depiction of death, dangers and daily life. Chapter Four examines poems about the war-torn Iraq, its people and culture. Chapter Five is the conclusion. It will sum up major approaches adopted by contemporary American poets to the subversion of the canon of war poetry—challenging the traditional images of soldier poets, the Western discourse as well as the bloody battlefield. It is arguable that the subversion is not only an innovation in war poetry, but also a shortcut to accessing more audience and voicing anti-war sentiments. The attempt discloses the special predicament of war poetry and the poets'effort to increase the artistic value of war poetry.