الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract The comparison between the black American poet Amiri Baraka (1934-2014) and the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish (1942-2008) raises questions concerning the logic of bringing together two poets of distinct historical contexts and cultural backgrounds: how to compare the national concerns of Darwish who has been labeled a resistance poet and Baraka the black racist poet? Finding answers to such questions is part of what this thesis is going to undertake. Baraka and Darwish are two prominent poets who belong to different cultures, yet share strong affinities. This thesis attempts to give a close reading to their poems in context. Chapter one traces the sociopolitical background of each poet and the factors that affected their mentalities. It also explores their early poetry in light of their relation to their respective societies in context; Baraka’s Black Magic and Darwish’s pre-exile poetry have been chosen for this purpose. Chapter two is a point of contrast, it focuses on presenting each poet’s attempt to interpret and portray the other. While Baraka’s approach is an aggressive, racist one, Darwishportrays the other in a humanistic manner. Throughout chapter three, Baraka and Darwish use their poetry as a weapon to defend their identities, one as a black man crushed in a white racial society, the other as a Palestinian whose land was occupied and usurped. Chapter four is devoted to examining the two poets’ similar and dissimilar techniques which they utilized in their quest for affirming their independent identities. |