Academic Essay on War

 

Title:
"Bruised Flowers, Broken Eras: War, Identity, and the Human Condition in Technocratic Conflict Zones"
An Analytical Reflection on Farheen Bhuiyan Nancy’s Poetic Lament

Abstract

This essay explores Farheen Bhuiyan Nancy’s poem as a multidisciplinary reflection on the human and moral consequences of war, especially in an age marked by technological militarism and cultural fragmentation. The poem presents a visceral, metaphor-rich critique of violence perpetrated in the name of religion, nationalism, and geopolitics. Drawing on feminist peace theory, trauma studies, and historical memory, the essay argues that the poem not only documents loss but calls for ethical resistance, invoking figures such as Florence Nightingale, Joan of Arc, and Saladin as archetypes for moral courage and humanitarian intervention. Through a poetic lens, the essay interrogates the cyclical nature of conflict, the commodification of human suffering, and the disintegration of collective moral clarity in an age of perpetual war.

Introduction

War poetry has historically served as a critical medium for expressing the traumas and moral dilemmas of conflict. In the postmodern and postcolonial world, contemporary poets often blend personal, historical, and geopolitical narratives to challenge dominant discourses about war. Farheen Bhuiyan Nancy’s  poem titled 'War'—beginning with “Glasses are shattered”—emerges as a potent example of this trend. Composed in the early hours at Mirpur Cantonment, the poem functions as both an elegy for humanity and a manifesto against ethical apathy in the face of militarized global politics. It interrogates centuries-old religious and ethnic conflicts, situates them within a modern technocratic framework, and asks whether humanity can still evolve morally in the face of collective decay.

Poetic Vision and the Aesthetic of Catastrophe

Nancy’s poetic language is unapologetically jarring. The opening lines—“Man—a piece of meat... / Woman—a piece of spark bruised... / Children—a bouquet of flowers”—collapse human identity into raw symbolic matter. These lines are not merely aesthetic devices; they signal a phenomenological breakdown of being under the pressures of war, aligning with Judith Butler’s (2004) concept of the “precarious life.” The body becomes vulnerable, dismembered, and representative of broader civilizational trauma.

The poem’s references to contemporary and ancient conflicts—including Jewish-Muslim antagonisms, the fragmentation of Muslim identity, and allusions to the Holocaust—do not seek to reinforce binaries, but rather emphasize the absurd repetition of history. Nancy’s use of “a saga four thousand years old” points toward a cyclical, mythic understanding of violence, similar to Walter Benjamin’s (1940/1968) “angel of history,” who sees history not as a continuum of progress, but a storm of unending catastrophe.

War, Technology, and Moral Desensitization

Where classical war poetry often portrays the battlefield, Nancy’s work shifts focus to the “technocratic world.” With metaphors like “Trojan worms” and “invincible mouses rupturing walls,” she critiques the digitized nature of modern warfare, possibly referencing cyber warfare, drone strikes, or media surveillance. Here, technology is not neutral but embedded in the destruction of human intimacy and responsibility. As Paul Virilio (1989) argues, the acceleration of warfare technologies results in an “aesthetics of disappearance,” where violence becomes invisible, abstract, or normalized.

The poem’s voice further laments the commodification of war: “Espionage bargaining / humans are traders of garbage—war is its branding name.” In these lines, Nancy prefigures Achille Mbembe’s (2003) notion of necropolitics, where economic and political interests sustain a system of sanctioned death. The “war child devoured... at Belfast’s breakfast” illustrates this poignantly—the victim is not just sacrificed, but also consumed by global indifference and spectacle.

Connection to Your Poem

Your poem reflects this “aesthetics of disappearance” through:

  • Images of broken humanity (“man—a piece of meat…”, “children… bleed red”)
  • The abstract forces at play (“Trojan worms”, “invincible mouses”, “espionage bargaining”)
  • The invisible victims (“war child… devoured in chunks…”)
  • The critique of media and political indifference (“trash—espionage bargaining… war is its branding name!”)

It grapples with the same disorientation Virilio describes: a world where war is everywhere, yet seen by few—felt by even fewer.

While Foucault emphasizes the state’s role in managing populations through techniques that promote life (healthcare, education, regulation), Mbembe shifts focus to the inverse: the systematic exposure to death as a form of control.

Where Foucault is concerned with disciplinary institutions and norms, Mbembe zeroes in on violence, militarism, occupation, and terror.

In Relation to Your Poem:

Your poem resonates powerfully with necropolitical themes:

  • The dehumanization of people (“pieces of meat,” “bruised,” “shattered”)

  • Wars in the name of religion

  • The fragmentation of communities

  • The rise of technocratic violence (“a war child... devoured in chunks at Belfast's breakfast”)

  • A critique of institutionalized apathy and commodification of war (“war is its branding name”)

These reflect how entire populations are consigned to death worlds—not just physically, but spiritually and socially—as Mbembe theorizes.

Feminist Ethics and Historical Archetypes

Nancy’s call to become Florence Nightingale, Joan of Arc, and Saladin invokes symbolic counter-histories of healing, resistance, and ethical leadership. These figures serve as what Carol Gilligan (1982) describes as ethical archetypes of “care” and “justice.” Nightingale represents compassion in the midst of imperial war. Joan of Arc, martyred and mythologized, stands for spiritual resistance. Saladin, a Muslim leader renowned even among Christian chroniclers for his chivalry, becomes a metaphor for pluralistic honor.

The invocation is not merely nostalgic but radical. In a fragmented world where “Muslims don’t know which brother to support,” Nancy calls for a reawakening of transcultural ethical consciousness. Her tone, oscillating between lament and urgency, reinforces the idea that such moral clarity must be reclaimed now—“Tick Tock!”—before the human and ecological cost becomes irreparable.

Ecological Mourning and the Posthuman Horizon

The poem’s conclusion shifts toward environmental grief: “Serenity of nature will be demolished—long lost!” War is not only a human tragedy but an ecological annihilation. This connects Nancy’s poetic voice with posthuman theorists like Donna Haraway (2016), who argue that war, capitalism, and ecological collapse are entangled. By ending the poem with a meditation on “lost serenity,” the poet leaves us not with a resolution but with a spectral vision of a planet damaged not only by bombs but by indifference.

Your poem powerfully addresses the human cost of war—"children- a bouquet of flowers- bleeds red", "woman- a piece of spark bruised", "war child... devoured". These visceral images challenge the abstraction of terms like collateral damage, restoring emotional weight and individual dignity to those often erased in official military language.

Conclusion

Farheen Bhuiyan Nancy’s poem is an urgent, interdisciplinary text that critiques the continuity of war across eras, technologies, and ideologies. It collapses myth, history, and present-day politics into a singular poetic outcry for ethical reorientation. Drawing on feminist and anti-colonial iconography, the poem articulates a global anguish that defies simplistic resolution. It is not a call to nationalism or sectarianism, but to a shared humanity that can still resist, still care, and still reimagine its own future. In an era where moral clarity is obfuscated by power, this poem reasserts the necessity of poetic dissent.

References

Benjamin, W. (1968). Theses on the philosophy of history (H. Zohn, Trans.). In H. Arendt (Ed.), Illuminations (pp. 253–264). Schocken Books. (Original work published 1940)

Butler, J. (2004). Precarious life: The powers of mourning and violence. Verso.

Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development. Harvard University Press.

Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.

Mbembe, A. (2003). Necropolitics. Public Culture, 15(1), 11–40.

Virilio, P. (1989). War and cinema: The logistics of perception (P. Camiller, Trans.). Verso.


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