Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-203) and index.

Making war: introduction -- 'Laws' for poets: poetry anthologies -- Exacting world: individual poetry cCollections -- To smash the mirror: rheatre -- A joint enterprise: riction -- Windows into life-worlds: blogs and conclusion.

"An enormous number of literary texts engaged with the build-up towards, undertaking of and aftermath of the recent invasion of Iraq. This book both provides a survey of such texts and presents a particular critical perspective on them. Many were regarded as taking a position for or against the invasion, but this study neither attempts to hold authors to account for their political choices nor tries to reach a moral consensus on the invasion. The idea here is to examine how certain literary texts appeared within and "spoke" to a specific socio-political context, not merely to reckon with that context but to understand the condition of contemporary literature generally. Focusing primarily on literature in English made available in the U.S.A. and U.K. while debates about the Iraq invasion were uppermost in the public consciousness, texts in a wide range of forms are examined here: from poetry anthologies to individual poetry collections, plays on current events to revivals of classical plays, action thrillers to literary fiction and personal blogs"-- Provided by publisher.