The essay investigates the rise and development of the prose poem form in Iraqi poetry in the period during and after the 1980s Iraq–Iran war. The essay follows the legacy of Western experiments with form following the First World War and their impact on the development of form in Iraqi poetry culminating in the prose poem. The dominance of this form on poetic development in this period has a close relationship with the experience of warfare and the ensuing of the cultural changes in Iraq after 1980. Poets of the 1980s war used poetic form as a means of dissent. The prose poem became for them an inherently subversive form that reflected their disaffection with the political, cultural, and literary conflicts of the time. The prose poem in
... Show MoreEvidences indicate that human beings were preoccupied with extreme forms of mental and psychic experiences long before they were recorded in literature. Greek myths and legends appear to include symbolizations of delusions, mania, and other bizarre forms of thought and behaviuor. The figure of the mad man or woman is analogous to the wild man, or the imaginary being who appears in various forms throughout western literature and art. Various studies refer to the notion of the wild man as a response to a persistent psychological urge. This urge gives an external expression and a valid form to the impulses of reckless physical self-assertion which is believed to be hidden in all of us, but is normally kept under control. Such impulses were exp
... Show MoreAbstract This study aims to compare British war poetry of the First World War with Iraqi poetry from the mid-20th century with special reference to Iraqi war poetry of the 1980’s Iraq-Iran War and the period that followed it. It will also investigate the influence of the designated British war poetry on the chosen body of Iraqi poetry. Through the comparison of sample poems the study presents, firstly, the direct influence of the British poetry of the Great War and its translation which formed the seeds of a more radical movement in Iraqi poetry during the 1980’s Iran/Iraq War and the period that followed it. The study also presents a comparison of the works of British and Iraqi civilian poets during and after the war time and their con
... Show Moreفقدان الزوج يعد حدثًا يغير حياة النساء، مما يضطرهن إلى السباحة في عالم جديد مليء بالحزن والوحدة والشكوك. مع الوقت، تطورت طريقة تصوير الأرامل بشكل كبير تعكس التغييرات في الآراء والقيم الثقافية. تُمثل الأرامل تقليديًا بأنهن ضعيفات ومعتمدات في الأدب، مستندة إلى افتراض أنهن يفتقدن الدعم المالي بعد وفاة شركائهن. ومع ذلك، فإن هذا التصوير لا يعترف بتأثير الأرملة على الرفاهية والهوية الشخصية. يسعى هذا النص إلى
... Show MoreThis article investigates Iraq wars presentation in literature and media. The first section investigates the case of the returnees from the war and their experience, their trauma and final presentation of that experience. The article also investigates how trauma and fear is depicted to create an optimized image and state of fear that could in turn show Iraqi society as a traumatized society. Critics such as Suzie Grogan believes that the concept of trauma could expand to influence societies rather than one individual after exposure to trauma of being involved in wars and different major conflicts. This is reflected in Iraq as a country that was subjected to six comprehensive conflicts in its recent history, i.e. less than half a century; th
... Show MoreThis article is part of the bigger project of my PhD thesis which investigates the influence of the British war poetry of the twentieth century on the development of Iraqi poetry in the century/Plymouth University/UK. The article examines the influences of British poetry on the development of the forms of poetry in Iraq after the Second World War. The aim is to shed the light on the creation of the ‘third product’ or the Iraqi poetry that shows the influences of the translated British poetry or the ‘second product’; which was written in prose for it is almost impossible to transfer the rhyme and rhythm of poetry from one language to another. Those who translated the poetry where also the pioneers of the major formal revolution in Ar
... Show MoreA silent film from Baghdad about love, war and poetry... _________________________ A new poetry book by the Iraqi poet Abdul Zahra Zaki has been published by Moment Books & Publications in an exclusively Digital Edition, entitled "Silent Film", and which subtitled "Poems of Blood, Bullets and Car Bombs", translated from the Arabic into English by Dr Adhraa A. Naser. This book is not trying to explain war, but simply to present it the way it is; the destruction it causes and the pain it leaves behind. For all who has changed forever because of war this book speaks the words of the killed and the killer. Zaki introduced the book with a line from his masterpiece The Hand Discovers describing the waves of bodies that stormed the country after t
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