Revista de Filología Románica (May 2017)

Vietnam in the Living Room: Denise levertov’s Poetry of War

  • Elisa Ortiz Barroso

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5209/RFRM.55873
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 33, no. 0
pp. 209 – 218

Abstract

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In the Eastern dimension of the Cold War, the United States decides to take part in the Vietnam War, turning the conflict into an international contend which would be broadcasted in the Western world. It is as a response to these events that Denise Levertov, writer and activist of the intellectual spheres of the U.S., develops her work of protest. Convinced of the artist’s responsibility within his/her sociopolitical context, she tries to defy with her poetry the passivity of the population, which originates in the distance established between the american living room, lit up by the tV, and the distressing scenes which can be seen on its screen.

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