The Mourner's Song: War and Remembrance from the Iliad to VietnamNo matter when or where they are fought, all wars have one thing in common: a relentless progression to monuments and memorials for the dead. Likewise all art made from war begins and ends in mourning and remembrance. 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. Eloquent and deeply moving, The Mourner's Song will speak to anyone interested in the literature of war and the relevance of the classics to our most pressing contemporary needs. |
Contents
One MOURNERS AND MONUMENTS | 1 |
Two THE DAUGHTERS OF MEMORY | 33 |
Three RAGE FOR ORDER | 49 |
Four THE WORDS OF THE SEA | 81 |
Five THE COMPANION SEEN BUT NOT HEARD | 96 |
Six THE POETRY IS IN THE KILLING | 116 |
Seven THE FIRE FROM HEPHAESTUS | 136 |
Eight TOWARD THE AUTUMN NIGHT OF OGUMA HIDEO | 158 |
Notes | 177 |
193 | |
Catalogue of the Muses | 203 |
207 | |
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The Mourner's Song: War and Remembrance from the Iliad to Vietnam James Tatum No preview available - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
Achaeans Agamemnon Andromache army Battery Wagner battle battlefield body bomb captures Cassandra Charleston command corpse Crane create dead death enemy epic everything eyes face Fagles father feel fighting Figure fire funeral rites gods Grant Greek happen Hector Helen Hephaestus hero heroic Hiroshima Homer human Ibid Iliad images imagine immortal inspired killing Lattimore lives lyre Maya Lin Maya Lin’s memoir Menelaus Military Incompetence modern monument Morris Island mortal mourning move Muses names Nestor never Odysseus Oguma Hideo Olympian Patroclus Patroclus's poem poet poetry Pope Priam rage readers Red Badge Riton river scenes seems sense Shaw shield of Achilles ships simile soldiers Somme song spear story Thetis Thiepval thing tion tradition translation Trojan Trojan War Troy turn Vietnam Veterans Memorial Vietnam Wall Experience Vietnam War Vietnamese war's warriors wars weapons women words wound Zeus