FORUM: LITERATURE OF US "ENEMIES"

LITERATURE OF ENEMIES OF THE US

Letter to the Editor

Terrah Baker, Editor

Fayetteville Free Weekly

During the Vietnam War I was a professor in UAF’s English Department.  Even as the years of the war mounted (two years, eight years, ten years!) the university failed to respond to the killing  and devastation—a million people subjected to bombs, napalm, and agent orange, their villages burned and leaders assassinated, and more millions displaced in a dubiously legal war.  Of course a university cannot shift its curriculum to meet emergencies, but such a long war could have provided at least one course on Vietnamese history, politics, or literature. 

Now the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq have caused twelve years and ten years of more killing.  But this time the university is better prepared.   With Arts and Sciences named for J. William Fulbright, the Middle Eastern Studies, a translation program, many other international activities, and high-level emphasis upon diversity, UAF is better positioned to help its students examine their nation’s wars and the idea of an “enemy nation” in real time.  Its course offerings include Iranian literature several semesters, courses in South Asian history and sociology, a course on Vietnam history and culture, and Syrian literature this semester. 

 In this thoughtful context, OMNI has organized a Book Forum on the Literature of US “Enemies.”  Please come and join the conversation:  Friday, February 22, 7 p.m., at OMNI.  The panelists—Jacob George, Kaveh Bassiri, and Dick Bennett—will discuss anthologies of Poetry of the Taliban, Literature of the “Axis of Evil,” and Poems from Iran and Its Exiles.  Join us to celebrate the rich literature of these countries and the distinctiveness of the individuals who inhabit them.

Dick Bennett

442-4600

2582 Jimmie Ave.

Fayetteville, AR 72703

References:

 US WAR AGAINST VIETNAM

Christopher, Renny.  The Vietnam War / The American War: Images and Representations in Euro-American and Vietnamese Exile Narratives.  U of Mass. P, 1995.

Rottmann, Larry.  Voices from the Ho Chi Minh Trail: Poetry of America and Vietnam, 1965-1993.  Event Horizon P, 1993. 

 History

Turse, Nick.  Kill Anything that Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam.  Macmillan, 2012. 

 US WAR AGAINST AFGHANISTAN

Alex Strick Van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn, eds.  Poetry of the Taliban.  Columbia UP, 2012

 US WAR AGAINST THE “AXIS OF EVIL”

Words Without Borders.  Literature from the “Axis of Evil”: Writing from    Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Other Enemy Nations.  New P, 2006. 
Wolpe, Sholeh, ed.  Forbidden: Poems from Iran and Its Exiles  

BOOK FORUM

LITERATURE OF US “ENEMIES.”

WHO ARE THEY, WHAT ARE THEY LIKE?

THE DIVERSITY OF ENEMIES AND FALSITY OF LABELS AS REVEALED IN THEIR LITERATURE

WHEN:  FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2013, 7 p.m.

WHERE:  OMNI CENTER FOR PEACE, JUSTICE, AND ECOLOGY,

3274 Lee Ave., parallel east of N. College, north of Atlanta Baking Co. and just south of Liquor World.

Dick Bennett, Coordinator

THE PANEL:

Jacob George:  Alex Strick Van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn, eds.  Poetry of the Taliban.  Columbia UP, 2012

Kaveh Bassiri:  Forbidden: Poems from Iran and Its Exiles  Edited by
Sholeh Wolpé.  Michigan State UP, 2012.

Dick Bennett:   Literature of the “Axis of Evil” (and other “enemies”), World without Borders Anthology.  New Press, 2006.

Joseph Odima, Videographer,

  brownsasquatches@yahoo.com

Bios of Panelists:

Jacob George:  Veteran soldier of US occupation of Afghanistan; founder of the anti-war bicycling organization, A Ride Till the End  (ARTTE).; musician, song-writer.  a.ride.till.the.end@gmail.com

Kaveh Bassiri:  Iranian-American poet and translator also teaches Persian literature and film courses at University of Arkansas.     kbassiri@email.uark.edu

Dick Bennett:   Emeritus professor of English, UA; co-founder of OMNI; compiler of Peace Movement Directory, Control of Information in the US, and Control of Media in the US.   jbennet@uark.edu