"The Keeper of the Flame": Dunya Mikhail's Wartime Laments

Abstract

This article analyzes contemporary Iraqi-American poet Dunya Mikhail's work through a historical analysis of female poets and the lament genre of poetry within the Middle East. I argue that Mikhail draws on the work of early female poets in order to ritually mourn not only those lost during the 1991 and 2003 Gulf Wars but also Iraq's attacked cultural heritage. This article builds upon a feminist analysis of Mikhail's poetry and suggests a deeper analysis of these texts can illustrate not only how women's Arabic-language texts have been misconstrued by Western audiences but also how Arab women's roles within warmaking have often been elided or misconstrued as well.