De-Stereotyping Iraq in Brain Turner’s Leaves That the Wind Drives Earthward and Ajal | ||
| Anbar University Journal of Languages & Literature | ||
| Article 28, Volume 14, Issue 4, December 2022, Pages 693-706 PDF (455.02 K) | ||
| Document Type: Research Paper | ||
| DOI: 10.37654/aujll.2022.179858 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Mohamad Fleih Hassan1; Omar Saadoon Ayyed2 | ||
| 1Department of English-College of Arts-University Of Anbar Ramadi-Iraq | ||
| 2University of Anbar- College of Arts- Department of English | ||
| Abstract | ||
| War against Iraq in 2003 was launched under certain disinformative propaganda, which claimed that Iraq owned mass destruction weapons. In addition, this propaganda stereotyped Iraqis as barbaric and savage people, exploiting the stereotyping strategy to legitimize this war. Many journalists and writers escorted the American forces to document the liberation of Iraqis in order to civilize and de-brutalize them as they propagated. Brain Turner was an eye witness as he was a soldier with the American forces invaded Iraq. However, Turner was shocked to see the atrocities committed by the American forces and the disinformation circulated by the media to stereotype Iraqis as the 'uncivilized'. Thus, he wrote poems to unmask these atrocities committed under false propaganda. As such, this article examines Turner's strategy of de-stereotyping Iraqis in two of his poems, namely, ''Leaves That the Wind Drives Earthward'' and ''Ajal''. The study follows a textual analysis of the selected poems to clear the misconceptions and disinformation used to invade the country of Iraq. The study concludes that Turner's realizations pushed him to write poems that de-stereotype Iraqis and liberate them from the labels of ‘uncivilized’ and ‘savages’ through highlighting their great culture and heritage. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Brain Turner; Ajal; mass destruction weapons; stereotype | ||
| References | ||
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