When the war is over, literature can help us make sense of it all
From poetry to memoir, literature can help us come to grips with the chaotic nature of conflict.
6 Oct 2014
Matthew McGuire
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Writing and Publishing
An soldier collapses with grief after his buddy dies, and is comforted, at Haktong-ni during the Korean War, 28 August 1950. Photo by Al Chang / US National Archives.
As we’ve marked the centenary of the first world war in 2014, the great poets of that conflict – Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Brooke – have brought the literature of conflict into focus.
Matthew McGuire is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at University of Western Sydney. He has published widely on various aspects of Irish and Scottish literature. His key publications include the academic monograph Contemporary Scottish Literature (2008). He is the editor of The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Scottish Poetry (2009), The Everyman Book of Irish Poems (2011), and The Collected Poems of Iain Crichton Smith (2011). His work has appeared in various peer-reviewed journals including the Edinburgh Review, Scottish Studies Review and Clues. His current research explores the role of literature in the aftermath of political conflict, with a focus on Northern Ireland in the wake of the Troubles. Dr McGuire is also the author of two novels, Dark Dawn (2012) and When Sorrows Come (2014).
