Listening to the Stories People Tell: Poetry as Knowledge Disruption on the Lebanese Civil War

This article considers how using poetry in research allows novel ways of thinking about problems in conflict and peace research. Specifically, this article draws from the epic poem The Arab Apocalypse by Etel Adnan as way to disrupt categories and characterizations of war and peace, and challenge existing narratives of the Lebanese Civil War. The analysis of the poem builds on the author’s queer-feminist epistemic position to challenge assumptions about the dichotomy between peace and war and the lasting impact of trauma on society and politics. It thus questions the linearity of conflict and focuses on explanatory narratives of trauma.