Understanding the Poetics of Resistance and the Politics of Existence: A Comparative Study of African American and Palestinian Poetic Traditions.

African Americans and Palestinians share a long history of prolonged traumas, ethnic genocide, and systematic apartheid, which finds its traces in Palestinian and African American poetry of resistance. The brutal practices of the Israeli government in Palestine, as well as the racist ideology and imperialistic hegemony of the recurring American governments, became the primary targets of African American and Palestinian resistance poetry. This treatise critically investigates social, political, historical, and human zones of contact between African American and Palestinian poets through the lens of postcolonial theory, highlighting topics of collective interest that underpin the discourse of the two poetic traditions. Exploring historical and textual spaces, the article illustrates tendencies toward home, identity, freedom, and struggle that permeate the Palestinian and African American poetic discourse. With its focus on poetry, the article highlights parallels between the two literary traditions that brought Palestinians and African Americans together in their fight for independence, self-determination, sovereignty, and universal justice. While African American nonviolent protest poetry is marked by intense nostalgia and a burning yearning for freedom, Palestinian resistance poetry is primarily defined by intense rage, revolution, and a vehement burning desire to reclaim the lost land and identity via all possible acts of resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]