The mourner's song
Subtitle: war and remembrance from The Iliad to Vietnam
By: James Tatum.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Chicago
Language: eng
Number of pages: 215
Subjects: Homer -- Influence; Homer; American literature -- History and criticism; War in literature; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 -- Literature and the conflict; War poetry, American -- History and criticism; Epic poetry, Greek -- History and criticism; Trojan War -- Literature and the war; War poetry -- History and criticism; Mourning customs in literature; Memory in literature
Description: "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."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-201) and index.
Table of contents: title: Mourners and monuments; title: The daughters of memory; title: Rage for order; title: The words of the sea; title: The companion seen but not heard; title: The poetry is in the killing; title: The fire from Hephaestus; title: Toward the autumn night of Oguma Hideo.