News of War

Just how noncombatant writings may probe war cultures and constitute ethical interventions is the subject of Rachel Galvin's impressive comparative study. Poetry from the 1930s and 1940s on the Spanish Civil War and World War II, from civilian writers as politically diverse as Cesar Vallejo, W.H. Auden, Wallace Stevens, Raymond Queneau, Marianne Moore and Gertrude Stein, provides the springboard for Galvin's brilliant, far-reaching discussion, founded on rich theoretical and sociohistorical frameworks. A 'must-read,' News of War is a veritable tour de force for its exposition, breadth and depth of scholarship, and sheer elegance. --Christine Arkinstall, University of Auckland In this compelling book about poets who wrote during the Spanish Civil War and World War II-Auden, Stevens, Moore, Vallejo, Queneau, and Stein-Rachel Galvin explores how these noncombatant writers earned, demonstrated, and anchored their authority for writing about war. With her astute analysis of wartime poetry's self-reflexivity, self-interruptions, and self-understanding, Galvin has written a richly insightful book that ranges across national and linguistic lines, and that illuminates both the historical contexts and the formal nuances of the poems. Everyone interested in poetry's relation to the violent realities of the twentieth century will benefit from this valuable book. --Jahan Ramazani, University of Virginia