The Poetics of Otherness: War, Trauma, and Literature

The Poetics of Otherness combines two strange yet familiar ideas: meaning-making and the meaning of difference. Using the concept of otherness as an entry point into a discussion of poetry, Jonathan Hart continues his exploration of the role of history and theory in relation to literature and culture. Chapters range from trauma in Shakespeare to Bartolomé de Las Casas' representation of the Americas to the trench poets to voices from the Holocaust. At the heart of this study is works that contend with violence and what beauty and truth poets, poet-soldiers, soldiers, and writers glean in the asymptotic search for expression.