Documentary Poetry: A Study of Amiri Baraka's "Somebody Blew up America"

Abstract

The modern age is prolific of literary movements and literary genres. Documentary poetry, which can be considered a new genre, combines both primary source material, such as war, political events, terrorism, people in detention and many other events with poetry. Amiri Baraka is a contemporary American poet whose poem Somebody Blew up America belongs to this genre. It records the September 11 blowing up of the Trade Centre from a perspective different from what the American propaganda and mass media tell the world. The recent paper attempts to shed light on Amiri Baraka's attitude towards this event, the reasons behind it, the real terrorists and the intentions behind this terrorist event according to this poem. The poet argues that the American government knew beforehand that the Trade Centre was going to be blown up and they took no action to prevent the catastrophe and, in this sense, they were partners in the crime. Furthermore, he accuses the Americans of blowing up the trade centre. The paper is divided into three sections and a conclusion. Section One is Introductory; it sheds light on documentary poetry, its characteristic features and practitioners. Section Two is a biographical note of Amiri Baraka paying special attention to his attitude to American politics based on domination, persecution and genocide. Section Three gives a detailed analysis of Somebody Blew up America as a documentary poem recording the September 11 blowing up of the Trade Centre with the aim of finding a pretext to invade other countries. The paper concludes that this event happened according to a well-made plan in cooperation with the American government and the CIA as partners.