American War in Iraq: A Postcolonial Ecocritical Reading of Selected Poems by Brian Turner

The paper basically aims to apply postcolonial ecocriticism to selected poems of American writer and poet, Brian Turner, in his books, Here, Bullet and Phantom Noise after the 2003 American War in Iraq. Applying ecocriticism to Turner's poems reveals that the concept of colonization can be applied to non- human nature which has been violated and devastated in Iraq after war. Moreover, Turner's works emphasize the linkage between the ecological decay and the social decadence of the Iraqi society. Turner confirms the interrelatedness between the ecological destruction and the eradication of Iraqis' culture and identity. He presents the truthful images of the imperial actions that have led to the environmental deterioration in Iraq in many poems, such as "Caravan," "The Hurt Locker," "The Mutanabii Street Bombing," "Kirkuk Oilfield, 1927" and "The Baghdad Zoo." In addition, his works shed light upon the social, moral, geographical and cultural legacy of colonialism.