Poetic Language and the Potential for Geopolitical Resistance in Moez Surani's Operations.

This article argues that Moez Surani's list poem Operations, a compilation of military operations carried out by United Nations (UN) member states from 1945 to 2006, represents not only the violence of the world system as inscribed in military language but also the arbitrariness of a bureaucracy bas...

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Publicado en:University of Toronto Quarterly Vol. 95; no. 2; pp. 111 - 128
Autor principal: Watts, Carl
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: University of Toronto Press May2026
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Poetic Language and the Potential for Geopolitical Resistance in Moez Surani's Operations.
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        au: Watts, Carl
        affil: Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
      su:
        Poetics
        Canadian poetry
        Surani, Moez
        Bureaucracy
        Resistance (Philosophy)
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        subj:
          Poetics
          Canadian poetry
          Surani, Moez
          Bureaucracy
          Resistance (Philosophy)
      keyword:
        conceptual writing
        globalization
        nation-states
        war
      ab: This article argues that Moez Surani's list poem Operations, a compilation of military operations carried out by United Nations (UN) member states from 1945 to 2006, represents not only the violence of the world system as inscribed in military language but also the arbitrariness of a bureaucracy based on the UN member states. In other words, the agency of individual actors defined as singular and unique nation-states is reflected in the arbitrariness and lack of systemization that inheres in the poem's form, which is at once algorithmic or conceptual and the result of aleatory characteristics and authorial manipulation, as described in Surani's introduction. These aspects of the poem work together to cement the nation-state as, perhaps paradoxically, a force of resistance within globalization.
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