Documentary Poetry: A Study of Amiri Baraka's "Somebody Blew up America"
Hamdi Hameed Al-Douri
College of Education for Women, Tikrit University
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25130/jls.1.2.1
Keywords: -Amiri Baraka -documentary poetry - September 11 -Terrorism -Trade Centre -Islamophobia.
Abstract
The modern age is prolific of literary movements and literary
genres. Documentary poetry, which can be considered a new genre,
combines both primary source material, such as war, political events,
terrorism, people in detention and many other events with poetry.
Amiri Baraka is a contemporary American poet whose poem
"Somebody Blew up America" belongs to this genre. It records the
September 11 blowing up of the Trade Centre from a perspective
different from what the American propaganda and mass media tell the
world. The recent paper attempts to shed light on Amiri Baraka's
attitude towards this event, the reasons behind it, the real terrorists
and the intentions behind this terrorist event according to this poem.
The poet argues that the American government knew beforehand that
the Trade Centre was going to be blown up and they took no action to
prevent the catastrophe and, in this sense, they were partners in the
crime. Furthermore, he accuses the Americans of blowing up the trade
centre. The paper is divided into three sections and a conclusion.
Section One is Introductory; it sheds light on documentary poetry, its
characteristic features and practitioners. Section Two is a biographical
note of Amiri Baraka paying special attention to his attitude to
American politics based on domination, persecution and genocide.
Section Three gives a detailed analysis of "Somebody Blew up
America" as a documentary poem recording the September 11 blowing
up of the Trade Centre with the aim of finding a pretext to invade
other countries. The paper concludes that this event happened
according to a well-made plan in cooperation with the American
government and the CIA as partners.
