Benny’s recent blog post about trauma and poetry is very intriguing. She discusses how over the term she has realized that poetry is one of the best ways to convey trauma. We can see this through history, such as the rise in poetry after traumatic events such as 9/11 and the World Wars. Benny argues that poetry is so key to understanding and discussing trauma because they are open to a multitude of interpretations. While I agree with this, and can add that poetry is so vital to understanding trauma because of its accessibility, I would argue that other genres of literature do just as well a job as poetry in reflecting trauma. In fact, I found that I was more moved by the graphic novels (Persepolis and Safe Area Gorazde) than I was by the poetry we studied.

Out of all the genres we have studied this term, which one do you think you related to most? Which genre helped you understand the trauma the authors attempted to portray the best?