From the Ideological Poem to the Anxious Poem: Transformations of Cultural Discourse in Contemporary Iraqi Poetry

Abstract

This research examines the transformations of cultural discourse in contemporary Iraqi poetry by tracing the transition from the stage of the ideological poem to the stage of the anxious poem, focusing on the experiences of three prominent Iraqi poets: Muhammad Hussein Al Yassin, Arif Al-Saadi, and Ali Al-Imara.The study seeks to approach how ideology and power manifested in Iraqi poetry before 2003, when the poem constituted a space for conflict with official discourse and a tool for resistance through the employment of symbolism, metaphor, and religious and mythical intertextuality.It also traces the transformations that occurred in poetic discourse after this date, when the poem freed itself from the obsession of direct confrontation with a central authority to express existential anxiety and fragmentation of identity, resulting from the collapse of political and social structures and the disintegration of reference frameworks.The research adopts in its approach the mechanisms of critical discourse analysis as formulated by Norman Fairclough at its three levels: textual analysis, discursive practice analysis, and social practice analysis, which enables the transition from the linguistic analysis of texts to revealing the ideological, cultural, and social dimensions that shape them and are shaped by them.The analysis reveals a radical transformation in the structure of Iraqi poetic discourse, as it moved from engagement with grand dichotomies such as power and resistance, good and evil, to more complex questions concerning identity, belonging, and meaning in a time of ruin and loss, affirming that these transformations were not merely a direct reflection of political changes, but rather constituted an active discursive practice that contributed to shaping collective consciousness and producing an alternative cultural discourse that redefines the relationship between the self, the community, power, and history.