Related Papers
The SAGE Encyclopedia of War: Social Science Perspectives
War Poetry
2017 •
Amitabh V Dwivedi
Across the globe throughout history, war has had an inhuman effect on the human condition, and the insensate destruction has apparently brought a hideous pattern of terror over time. Technological advancements, particularly in military technology, have developed more powerful ways to massacre millions of people and horrify a state or country. Throughout history, many writers have written on war without having a direct experience of it; however, world literatures have been filled with firsthand knowledge of war provided by “soldier-poets,” reflecting what war can do to the psyche and body.
Annals of Palliative Medicine
In my hands, a glimpse of war
Miguel Julião, MD, MSc, PhD
Critical Asian Studies
Writing War, and the Politics of Poetic Conversation
2022 •
James Caron
The version of record has been published open-access by Critical Asian Studies, at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14672715.2022.2030776 This article's premise is that war is ontological devastation, which opens up questions as to how to write about it. The paper contends that even critiques of war, whether critical-geopolitical analyses of global structures or ethnographies of the everyday, center war in ways that underscore erasures of non-war life, and therefore risk participating in that same ontological devastation. Engagement with extra-academic conversational worlds, both their social lives and their intellectual ones, is ethically necessary in writing war. To that end, this article examines poetic production from one front in the US-led "Global War on Terror": Swat Valley, Pakistan. Poets in Swat have produced an analysis of war as ontological devastation, but also protest their reduction, in the minds of others and themselves, to the violence-stricken present. This intervention is not an intellectual critique alone. Focusing on a new genre of "resistance" poetry, this article shows how poets resist war by maintaining worlds partly beyond it. In this, the critical content and the social lives of poetry are inseparable.
Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research
Peace and war themes in canonical poems included in literature anthologies for junior high schools in Israel
Prof. Sara Zamir
Purpose The purpose of this research was to study the manifestation of peace and war in the poems included in the new literature curriculum for the junior high school students in Israel. Design/methodology/approach Content analysis. Findings The results of the research, comprised by the content analysis methodology, showed that only three poems could be attributed to the category of war theme. Most of the poems fit to the category of didactic war motif; namely, they describe and refer to wars but are aimed at socializing the readers to peace by presenting them the vainness of wars. Research limitations/implications The brief review addresses only canonic poems and not popular songs. Practical implications The brief review will be directed to decision-makers in author’s country. Social implications Literary works have the ability to play a key role in peace education. Political behavior studies show that patterns of political behavior, such as support for a certain political party, t...
International Journal of Social Science Research
Voices of War in Children’s Literature Against the Background of Conflict in the Gaza Strip
2023 •
Lea Baratz
KILLERS: a Review-Essay on “WAR IS A FORCE THAT GIVES US MEANING" by Chris Hedges (2002) © H. J. Spencer [20Nov.2021] <9,000 words; 12 pages>
Herb Spencer
This is a review of a radical 200-page book by a literate, war-correspondent who reviews the intoxicating effects of war on the various conflicts that he personally saw in his 15 years of the modern madness of civil wars that have broken out in Central America, the Balkans and Iraq. Hedges exposes the lies and deceits that trigger these fratricidal and ethnic conflicts that are exploited by thugs and gangsters for their personal gratifications. He knows that "War is Hell" as he has been there many times during the first half of his life. He argues that war seduces entire societies, creating fictions that the public believes and relies on to continue to support conflicts. He also describes how those who experience war may find it exhilarating and addictive. Indeed: "war's seduction and inevitability and sometimes even necessity" are a recurring theme in this book. He describes the negative impacts of war on injured societies. He convincingly proves that war is the worst human behavior that can overtake a society. As a literate intellectual, he is able to give first-hand descriptions of the immediate feelings that arise when first exposed to direct, life-threatening violence. Although he claims that he wrote the book "not to dissuade us from war but to understand it, so that Americans, who wield such massive force across the globe, see within ourselves the seeds of our own obliteration." He contrasts the visceral immediacy of existential situations with the bland, dullness of modern life that makes war so attractive an adventure for too many men. He calls on his classical education to illustrate the long history of violence that has seduced warriors and professional soldiers for far too long.
The War Hotel: Psychological Dynamics in Violent Conflict
2004 •
arlene audergon
War frames our lives. We live, as Billy Bragg (1985) put it, “Between the Wars”; or we live during wars, or after wars; or we live in terror of the threat of war; or get passionately aroused into war. We may watch helplessly as TV news shows us events of horror and violence overseas; on 19th June this year New Zealanders watched video on TV3 News of Kiwi troops under fire in Afghanistan, recorded on a soldier’s helmet-cam. Recent events unfolded once more on TVNZ with gut-wrenching inevitability: I watched as two soldiers were killed, and four injured. The survivors probably will return home traumatised. My interest in reviewing The War Hotel was personal: my grandfather fought in the First World War, my father in the Second World War. I served in the Israeli Defense Force, 1965-1967, and soon felt appalled by Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. Some of my Jewish extended family perished in Poland during the Shoah. All humanity is touched by war, in varying degrees of separation...
Spacesofidentity.net
Reflections on War
2005 •
William Anselmi
War becomes more devastating for the psychic world of the victims (interview)
Kalina Yordanova
Kalina Yordanova is a psychotherapist. She holds a MA degree in Clinical Psychology from Sofia University " St. Climent Ohridski " , a MA degree in Central and East-European Studies from UCL and a PhD in Psychoanalysis and Anthropology from UCL. In 2016, she joined Doctors without Borders (MSF). Kalina Yordanova works with victims of torture, domestic violence and trafficking in people. We live in times when the pain from the WWII is still with us. Yet, it seems we have not learnt our lessons and – despite our claims to be civilized creatures-we allow wars to rage. Why does this happen? Civilization and war are incompatible. Yet, one is not born " civilized " but learns to be such. Much earlier than that though, which is to say earlier than we learn how to live with other people according to some shared principles and laws, we possess one basic characteristic: ambivalence. Ambivalence is the tendency of every human being to love and hate the same object. This is why we hurt those we love. Ambivalence cannot be uprooted but we can become aware of it in order to control it. Yet, we refrain from such awareness because it means insights into our own cruelty and desire to use and abuse the others. The fact that the pain from the WWII is still with us does not necessarily mean learning from experience. Learning from experience means feeling responsible for the consequences of armed conflict and the condition of our planet as an interconnected system. This means an insight into the fact that everyone is responsible for both the reparation and the damaging of the world around. One explicit example of the absence of critical feedback about the way Western governments support the wars and even facilitate terrorism is their condemnation of the Islamic State along with large deals of high-tech weaponry between Great Britain and Saudi Arabia, for example. The lack of understanding of our own contribution to what is threatening us is visible also when a 9-year-old African boy is risking his life during a night hunt of endangered species and his prey reaches the table of an exquisite French restaurant for 100 EUR per meal. This state of affairs has a cost and everyone will have to pay a share. Sadly, once our reality testing is disrupted, it is difficult to restore it, because it is very convenient to project the evil onto an alleged enemy, thus adopting the feeling of having the right to act. It is true that those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it, but it is also true that facing our own responsibility for events in history means painful insights and the need to relinquish a comfortable life we have taken for granted. It seems that for contemporary people, it is almost impossible to give up on something desired, to postpone gratification and not to immediately act in order to meet their needs. How can people, societies and the world as a whole be healed in the aftermath of war? Is there some universal recipe or guidelines at least? Access to ambivalence, I think, is crucial for the healing process. From the perspective of participants in a global system of relationships, everyone must be aware of their own position in this system; 1 Bulgarian version available at
The Many Faces of War
The Many Faces of War
2019 •
Donald Travis
War is about brain injuries, psychological trauma, abandonment, homelessness, suicide, the exploitation and weaponization of woman's virtues, flawed planning assumptions, ideological militarism, sexual assault and rape, and the quest for political power. The Many Faces of War confronts these issues with unfiltered emotions, voicing the horrors of war experiences through personal insights in twenty-one poignant essays. These testimonies of war do not represent the full range of war-related experiences. Nor are the full effects of war easy to understand, as they often linger for a lifetime both physically and psychologically. Yet, the authors help us understand them better through research, reflection, and day-today experiences. Further, the historians explain how conditions of contemporary warfare are not new; war trauma is timeless in spite of technological progress, rising populations, globalization, and ever-changing political narratives. War stories and testimonials are disclosed in the authentic language of the authors. The range of subjects convey the futility of trying to learn everything there is to know about human nature and warfare, reinforcing a truth that the more we learn about any subject (in this case war) the less we realize we know. Each essay opens up another Pandora's box of dirty secrets, as the authors bare their souls while leaving the reader with unanswered questions; and there is nothing wrong with discovering an unanswered question if the question is important. Raising ambiguous questions and identifying less than satisfactory answers can be the beginning of learning and growing.
