Poetry and Trauma: War on Iraq in Selected Works by Brian Turner, Sinan Antoon, and Amal Al-Jubouri

Abstract

Abstract The U.S.-led war against Iraq (2003), labeled as the “war on terror,” was declared to uproot terrorism in some targeted countries, such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Ironically, “the war on terror” proved to be a “war of terror” as it has not only scarred the bodies of its victims on both sides, but has also traumatized their minds and psyches. Considerable numbers of Iraqis and Americans, whether soldiers or civilians, have suffered from war trauma. A good number of these traumatized victims expressed their trauma and testified to the experience of war. This dissertation deals with war poetry written by traumatized victims and survivors of the U.S. - led war against Iraq, such as Brian turner (1967- ), Sinan Anton (1967- ), and Amal Al-Jubouri (1967- ). Poetry enabled these traumatized individuals to speak for others and to others about the real story of his/ her traumatic experience. This dissertation draws on the political, social and cultural dimension of trauma theory, applying its psychoanalytic perspective of Freud, Cathy Caruth, Shoshana Felman, Judith Herman and others to the texts under analysis. Through testifying to the war trauma in the poetry of these poets, the researcher attempts to show how they brought the miseries, destruction and terror of the war on Iraq graphically and vividly to the reader through an Americana victims and survivors’ eyes in an attempt to unfold and speak aloud the untold truth of war, whose credibility is only available through those who have gone through such a horrible experience as themselves. In their poems, Turner, Antoon and Al-Jubouri resist the “war on terror” and its outrages that afflicted Iraqis as well as Americans. They also fight back being silenced or repressed by any cultural or political hegemony, which pressures war victims and survivors into silence.