Ethnography

What has Denise Levertov’s poem, “In Thai Binh (Peace) Province” clarify for you about history and memory.
Levetov’s poem “In Thai Binh (Peace) Province” shows how sometimes the collective memory that is the history of a society is used by those within that society as a substitute for a lack of personal connection. This inevitably clouds not only the individual’s perception of the event but also hides the truth, and also becomes part of the collective memory. This perpetual motion of fallacies via ignorance is the basis of this historical record of Vietnam and was catalysed by the media of the time. Although media, especially visual media is considered tangible almost infallible history, Lervertov is adamant in revealing the bias that encompasses not only the viewer but also the composer. This bias, although an essential part of the historical record cannot capture the context within which is recorded or that of which it simply does not record. Lervertov opens our eyes to those other images of “peace within the long war” that the media of the rime chose to ignore and subsequently show that the collective memory that is history is
The high modality of the metaphor “so i’ll use my dry burning eyes to photograph within me” creates a sense of self exploration, of which is considerably painful considering the sheer atrocities of the war. This recognition of the collective memory as the morally just opinion encourages the exploration of other truths by acknowledging the difficulties in doing so, aiding the audience in distancing themselves from their bias. The focus then shifts to the beauty of the Vietnam landscape, with low modality, vivid imagery created through a neutral welcoming lexical choice and a repetition of long consonants in “brown, swift Wide River”. This quickly challenged the wider perspective of Vietnam outlined in the first two