Radical Visions

Poetry by Vietnam Veterans

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Last edited by MARC Bot
November 15, 2020 | History

Radical Visions

Poetry by Vietnam Veterans

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Although poets have written about warfare since at least the time of Homer, the Vietnam war has struck many observers as being immune to the interpretations of poetry and myth. "Lyric poetry of a traditional kind," writes one critic, "has proved inappropriate to communicate the character of the Vietnam war, its remoteness, its jargonized recapitulations, its seeming imperviousness to aesthetics." Nonetheless, the past two decades have seen an unprecedented outpouring of poetry that seeks to describe and come to terms with that bitterly divisive conflict.

Publish Date
Language
English
Pages
363

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Radical Visions
Radical Visions: Poetry by Vietnam Veterans
1994, University of Georgia Press
in English

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references (p. [337]-354) and index.

Published in
Athens, Georgia, USA
Copyright Date
1994

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
811/.5409358
Library of Congress
PS310.V54 G67 1994, PS310.V54G67 1994, PS310.V54 G67 1993

The Physical Object

Pagination
xviii, 363 p. ;
Number of pages
363

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL1723981M
Internet Archive
radicalvisionspo0000gote
ISBN 10
0820315109
LCCN
92027595
OCLC/WorldCat
26307212
Library Thing
5046645
Goodreads
2263556

Work Description

Description from dust jacket:

Although poets have written about warfare since at least the time of Homer, the Vietnam war has struck many observers as being immune to the interpretations of poetry and myth. "Lyric poetry of a traditional kind," writes one critic, "has proved inappropriate to communicate the character of the Vietnam war, its remoteness, its jargonized recapitulations, its seeming imperviousness to aesthetics." Nonetheless, the past two decades have seen an unprecedented outpouring of poetry that seeks to describe and come to terms with that bitterly divisive conflict.

In Radical Visions Vince Gotera argues that poetry written by Vietnam veterans underlines the failure of traditional American myths to help Americans understand the war and its aftermath. The book blends sociohistorical commentary with close readings of individual works by such poets as Michael Casey, Walter McDonald, and W. D. Ehrhart.

In the book's first section, "The 'Nam," Gotera examines several key mythic structures—the Wild West (a violent extension of the mythic virgin land), the machine in the garden, the city on the hill, regeneration through violence—all of which helped delude Americans about Vietnam and the war being fought there.

In the second part, "The World," Gotera shows how another myth, the American Adam as an exemplar of ahistorical innocence, proved unusable for returning veterans attempting to readjust to American life. In addition to exposing these failed myths, Gotera argues, the poetry by Vietnam veterans reflects an effort to construct new myths—most notably that of the "warrior against war," an oxymoronic structure arising from the difficulties faced by returning veterans. In the book's final chapters, Gotera examines the work of Bruce Weigl and Yusef Komunyakaa, two poems whom the author considers most successful at portraying the moral absurdity of the Vietnam war without sacrificing lyrical aesthetics.

The first comprehensive study devoted exclusively to poetry by Vietnam veterans, Radical Visions argues that this body of writing registers an important advance in the aesthetics and poetics of war literature and offers a cogent antiwar statement rooted in personal experience.

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November 15, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
August 18, 2020 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
March 15, 2011 Edited by Vince Gotera Edited without comment.
March 15, 2011 Edited by Vince Gotera Added new cover
December 10, 2009 Created by WorkBot add works page