International Journal of Human Research and Social Science Studies

This paper analyzes The Yellow Birds (2012) by Kevin Powers as a paradigmatic novel of an iraq war, which negotiates the relationship between war, memory and identity in terms of trauma and symbolism. It is based on a qualitative interpretive approach which uses close reading and thematic analysis that is based on trauma theory, memory studies and symbolic analysis. The findings are fourfold. To begin with, the novel portrays war as a pointless thing and does not represent it as heroic, which corresponds to post-heroic theories of defining the modern conflicts as disillusioning and meaningless. Second, memory appears as discontinuous, obtrusive and theatricizing the imperative of trauma to repeat and act as counter-memory to the official discourses of patriotic duty. Third, there is identity fracture, which is a symptom of moral injury and dissonance between social concepts of heroism and real life. Fourth, symbolism is made the main vehicle of the trauma because repetitive images, yellow birds, rivers, and letters turn psychic traumas into aesthetic expression. These findings are placed in the context of the existing scholarship and form an integrative contribution of the given study: whereas before, the research treated trauma, memory, or symbolism as distinct concepts, this study proves that they depend on each other. But finally, The Yellow Birds is a personal testament and a cultural memory bank, a record of anti-histories of the Iraq War and the embodiment of the purpose of literature in making us speakable what the trauma makes.

trauma, memory, identity, symbolism, Iraq War

1. Abdushukurova, U. (2024). War and humanity in'war and Peace'. innovative developments and research in education, 3(30), 342-350.
2. Ackerman, E. (2015). Erdogan's ISIS Opportunism. The New Yorker.
3. Al, A. D. N., & Benny, N. S. (2025). Trauma, Guilt, and the Fragmented Psyche: The Psychological Impact of the Iraq War on American Soldiers. International Journal of English Language, Education and Literature Studies, 4(2), 595756.
4. AL-Janabi, Z. A. A. S., & Chen, A. (2019). Critique of the Cruelty of the Iraq War: The Symbolism in Kevin Power's The Yellow Birds. Journal of Literature and Art Studies, 9(5), 479-487.
5. Alkaisy, M. S. K., Ahmed, S. S., Alsydan, M. S., Suleiman, A. A. Q., Younis, N. M., & Ahmed, M. M. (2021). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Following Wars and Repression at Mosul City, Iraq. Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, 15(3), 1240-1245.
6. Alosman, M. I. M. (2021). Grievable and Ungrievable Lives: Phil Klay's Redeployment. humanitas-Uluslararası Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 9(17), 30-44.
7. Alosman, M. I. M., & Raihanah, M. M. (2020). Survival Psychology in Kevin Powers' The Yellow Birds. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 20(1).
8. Bouakkaz, A., & Boutora, S. E. (2025). The Impact of the 2003 American Invasion on the Intellectual Legacy in Iraq (Doctoral dissertation, Université du Martyr Cheikh Larbi Tebessi Tebessa).
9. Caruth, C. (2016). Unclaimed experience: Trauma, narrative, and history. JHU Press.
10. Darya, R. A. (2022). Mental health problems in Iraq: A systematic review. Global Psychiatry Archives, 5(01), 26-35.
11. Dib, A., & Izquierdo, M. A. R. (2021). Terrorism and the loss of cultural heritage: The case of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. In Transcultural diplomacy and international law in heritage conservation: A dialogue between ethics, law, and culture (pp. 377-393). Singapore: Springer Singapore.
12. Farhan, R. N (2025, April). Identity, Isolation, and Hope in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Exploring Consciousness and Spiritual Redemption in Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun, MEDAD, 2025(2025), PP.35-43
13. Frye, N. (2020). Anatomy of criticism: Four essays. Princeton University Press.
14. Gilroy, P. (1993). The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Harvard University Press.
15. Halbwachs, M. (2024). On collective memory. University of Chicago Press.
16. Hirsch, M. (2012). The generation of postmemory: writing and visual culture of the holocaust. New York: Columbia UP, 3.
17. LaCapra, D. (2014). Writing history, writing trauma. Jhu Press.
18. Lim, I. C. Z., Tam, W. W., Chudzicka-Czupała, A., McIntyre, R. S., Teopiz, K. M., Ho, R. C., & Ho, C. S. (2022). Prevalence of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress in war-and conflict-afflicted areas: A meta-analysis. Frontiers in psychiatry, 13, 978703.
19. Luttwak, E. N. (1995). Toward post-heroic warfare. Foreign Aff., 74, 109.
20. McCafferty, J. D. (2023). UNESCO, Cultural Heritage and Conflict in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
21. Powers, K. (2012). The Yellow Birds. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
22. Raihanah, M. M., & Alosman, M. I. M. (2022). Post-Heroic Portrayal of War in Kevin Powers' The Yellow Birds. Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literatures Vol. 14(1), 189-202.
23. Satriawan, F. Y., & Rahayu, M. (2020). A soldier's post-traumatic stress disorder in Kevin Power's The Yellow Birds. Jurnal Pembelajaran Sastra, 2(1), 1-11.
24. Shay, J. (2014). Moral injury. Psychoanalytic psychology, 31(2), 182.
25. Simko, C. (2020). The memory phenomenon in contemporary historical writing: How the interest in memory has influenced our understanding of history, by Patrick H. Hutton, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 14(2025), 513-516.
26. Singh, T. (2024). Torture, Terror, and Affect in Post 9/11 Literature and Culture (Doctoral dissertation, Durham University).
27. Ulack, C. (2015). Demography of race and ethnicity in Iraq. In The International Handbook of the demography of race and ethnicity (pp. 367-384). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.