Voices of Defiance: Necropolitics in the Poetry of Suheir Hammad

Abstract

The present research shows how the diasporic poetic voice of Suheir Hammad presents the geopolitical experiences of the Palestinians in the context of necropolitical power structures. Hammad converts political violence and racial discrimination against the Palestinians into a resisting poetic discourse that challenges the dominant global structures of power and privilege. Through the theoretical frameworks of necropolitics by Achille Mbembe (2019) the present research elucidates how Hammad’s poetry functions as a theoretical and cultural mode of (en)countering oppression under the conditions where systematic violence and politics of death are practised. Hammad’s poetry represents the diasporic experience, reconstructs Palestinian identity, and resists the dominant necropolitical power structures. It investigates how the diasporic voice of Hammad highlights the collective trauma and historical marginalization of the Palestinians on the global canvas and creates new possibilities of human existence and political resistance.