ABSTRACT
WAR AND RETURN
By
Alexander Vartan Gubbins
War and Return is a collection of poetry that pivots on the conflict between loss of human life, sometimes even whole cities, and reinvention of cultural identity. In these poems, I search for and shape my own identity as a poet, while revealing my experiences as a soldier in the US War in Iraq and as the grandson of an Armenian who survived the 1915 Armenian Genocide in Turkey. These narrative poems are mainly in open form with a few in closed form as well. As I write in open form, I am not bound by line length or sound repetition. Other elements such as imagery, cataloging, and metaphor are my primary concern. With the ghazal form, however, one rooted in the Middle East, I am bound by steadfast tradition and, in these, I reach for my Armenian-ness that may have been otherwise inaccessible. On the whole, the poems in this thesis give shape to the unseen and the forgotten, for victims of war are continually discovered.
","abstract_html":"<p>ABSTRACT</p> <p>WAR AND RETURN</p> <p>By</p> <p>Alexander Vartan Gubbins</p> <p><em>War and Return</em> is a collection of poetry that pivots on the conflict between loss of human life, sometimes even whole cities, and reinvention of cultural identity. In these poems, I search for and shape my own identity as a poet, while revealing my experiences as a soldier in the US War in Iraq and as the grandson of an Armenian who survived the 1915 Armenian Genocide in Turkey. These narrative poems are mainly in open form with a few in closed form as well. As I write in open form, I am not bound by line length or sound repetition. Other elements such as imagery, cataloging, and metaphor are my primary concern. With the ghazal form, however, one rooted in the Middle East, I am bound by steadfast tradition and, in these, I reach for my Armenian-ness that may have been otherwise inaccessible. On the whole, the poems in this thesis give shape to the unseen and the forgotten, for victims of war are continually discovered.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Gubbins, Alexander"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Fine Arts","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dr. Beverly Matherne"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2014,"date_issued":"2014-08-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2014-08-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:23:34Z","subjects":["poetry","armenia","armenian","veteran","war","reinvent","grieving","iraq","narrative","soldier","Arts and Humanities"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/33","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dr. Beverly Matherne"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Gubbins, Alexander"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2014-06-11T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Fine Arts"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["poetry","armenia","armenian","veteran","war","reinvent","grieving","iraq","narrative","soldier","Arts and Humanities"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/33"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["ABSTRACT
WAR AND RETURN
By
Alexander Vartan Gubbins
War and Return is a collection of poetry that pivots on the conflict between loss of human life, sometimes even whole cities, and reinvention of cultural identity. In these poems, I search for and shape my own identity as a poet, while revealing my experiences as a soldier in the US War in Iraq and as the grandson of an Armenian who survived the 1915 Armenian Genocide in Turkey. These narrative poems are mainly in open form with a few in closed form as well. As I write in open form, I am not bound by line length or sound repetition. Other elements such as imagery, cataloging, and metaphor are my primary concern. With the ghazal form, however, one rooted in the Middle East, I am bound by steadfast tradition and, in these, I reach for my Armenian-ness that may have been otherwise inaccessible. On the whole, the poems in this thesis give shape to the unseen and the forgotten, for victims of war are continually discovered.
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WAR AND RETURN
By
Alexander Vartan Gubbins
War and Return is a collection of poetry that pivots on the conflict between loss of human life, sometimes even whole cities, and reinvention of cultural identity. In these poems, I search for and shape my own identity as a poet, while revealing my experiences as a soldier in the US War in Iraq and as the grandson of an Armenian who survived the 1915 Armenian Genocide in Turkey. These narrative poems are mainly in open form with a few in closed form as well. As I write in open form, I am not bound by line length or sound repetition. Other elements such as imagery, cataloging, and metaphor are my primary concern. With the ghazal form, however, one rooted in the Middle East, I am bound by steadfast tradition and, in these, I reach for my Armenian-ness that may have been otherwise inaccessible. On the whole, the poems in this thesis give shape to the unseen and the forgotten, for victims of war are continually discovered.
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