The Mourner's Song

Description:

"In The Mourner's Song, James Tatum offers incisive discussions of physical and literary memorials constructed in the wake of war, from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the writings of Stephen Crane, Edmund Wilson, Tim O'Brien, and Robert Lowell.". "Tatum's touchstone throughout is the Iliad, not just one of the earliest war poems, but also one of the most powerful examples of the way poetry can be a tribute to and consolation for what is lost in war. Reading the Iliad alongside later works inspired by war, Tatum reveals how the forms and processes of art convert mourning to memorial. He examines the role of remembrance and the distance from war it requires, the significance of landscape in memorialization, the artifacts of war that fire the imagination, the intimate relationship between war and love and its effects on the ferocity with which soldiers wage battle, and finally, the idea of memorialization itself. Because all survivors suffer the losses of war, Tatum's is a story of both victims and victors, commanders and soldiers, women and men. Photographs of war memorials in Vietnam, France, and the United States beautifully augment his testimonials."--BOOK JACKET.

subjects: Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975,  Greek Epic poetry,  War poetry,  American War poetry,  American literature,  History and criticism,  Influence,  Trojan War,  Literature and the conflict,  War in literature,  Memory in literature,  Mourning customs in literature,  Literature and the war,  War poetry, history and criticism,  Epic poetry, history and criticism,  Homer,  American literature, history and criticism,  Vietnam war, 1961-1975, literature and the war,  Trojan war, literature and the war,  Vietnam War, 1961-1975

People: Homer