A recent scientific article titled “Generational Categorization as a Critical ‘Mechanism’ for Deconstructing Iraqi Poetic Achievement: A Reading in the Book ‘Generational Categorization of Poetic Writing in Iraq’ by Dr. Saeed Hameed Al-Wanas” was published in the journal of the Lebanese Writers’ Union.
The article, written by academic and critic Dr. Fatima Ahmed, offered an in-depth analytical reading of the critical contributions of Dr. Al-Wanas, a faculty member at the College of Islamic Sciences, University of Karbala.
The study reviews his book “Generational Categorization of Poetic Writing in Iraq: Between Theory and Practice—A Study of the Nineties Generation,” which stands out as a major contribution to contemporary critical studies. The book combines rigorous theoretical foundations with practical analysis of the Iraqi poetic landscape, especially the 1990s generation.
Dr. Al-Wanas highlights “generational categorization” not merely as a chronological division, but as a critical tool requiring epistemological and experimental examination. He deconstructs the term, explores its implications, and assesses its validity in reading Iraqi poetry transformations.
Addressing the poets of the 1990s, the book stresses that this generation was not a total break from predecessors, but rather a space of creative tension between continuity and divergence. Political and social conditions—marked by sanctions and wars—shaped their aesthetic anxiety and their oscillation between personal and historical, the everyday and the transcendent.
The study underlines the experimental nature of 1990s poetry, marked by breaking traditional structures and introducing new expressive forms such as prose poetry and interactive poetry. Concepts like “textual space,” “fragmentation of the poetic self,” and “rebellion against rhetorical heritage” are central themes.
Beyond documentation, the book establishes a fresh critical perspective questioning the mechanisms of poetic generationality and the interplay between generations, within a broader intellectual framework. It also situates Iraqi poetry within the wider Arab context, linking it to experimental movements in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Morocco.
This scholarly recognition highlights the active role of faculty at the College of Islamic Sciences in advancing literary and critical discourse, engaging in Arab cultural dialogue, and publishing meaningful research in prestigious journals.
