The Techniques used for the Visualization of America in Contemporary Poetry of Palestine (with focus on Symbols and Niqab)

In the modern era, the United States of America has been the cause of warfare and tensions in various countries through its interventionist policies. Palestine is a country that has been subject to the interference of the US; by providing arms and diplomatic support for the occupying regime of Israel, the US has brought about a variety of sufferings to the people of Palestine. This has led to the reaction of Palestinian poets against the actions and policies of the US. These poets have been striving to offer a comprehensive visualization of the US through their poems.

Visualization is a common term in the old and new Arabic criticism through which poets attempt to visualize a certain subject using a variety of techniques. Techniques derived from old rhetorical sciences including simile, metaphor, and allusion as well as the new techniques such as symbols, niqab, etc. Using these techniques, the poet seeks to convey a subject with maximum influence. Meanwhile, the contemporary poetry of Palestine has been the reflection of developments of a country in which numerous enemies have interfered following its occupation. These poets hold the US accountable for the majority of warfare and global issues, resulting in their attempts to visualize these notions within their poems.
Examinations showed that there has been numerous studies conducted in the area of visualization in Poetry; in a paper titled, “Visualization Methods and Psychological Implications of Modern Arabic Poetry in Yemen” (2012) written by Khalid Valid Hassan al-Gazali, first the concept of poetic imagery is expressed and then samples of simile, embodiment, mystery, and qena’a in contemporary poetry of Yemen are analyzed. In another paper titled, “The Image of Mayakovsky in the Poems of Abdulwahhab Bayati and Sherko Bekas” (2012), the authors including Khalil Parvini, Hadi Nazari Monazzam, and Kaveh Khezri conducted a comparative examination of poetic imagery within the works of Abdulwahhab Bayati and Sherko Bekas. In his Master’s thesis titled, “Poetic Imagery of Azzedine Mihoubi” (2010), Abdulrazzaq Belqais from Buzaria’a University (Algeria) examined the concept of poetic imagery within the old and new criticism followed by an investigation of the most important poetic imagery including mystery, myth, simile, etc. in poems of Azzedine Mihoubi.
Subsequently, given the absence of any inquiries on the techniques used in contemporary poems of Palestine to visualize the US, it is a new subject which involves scientific innovations and demonstrates the necessity of conducting the present study.

With the purpose of examining and describing how the US is visualized in the works of Palestinian poets, the present study seeks to particularly investigate symbols and niqab as the most important techniques used to visualize the US within the modern Palestinian poetry using the descriptive-analytical method. To this end, samples taken from works of poets including Mahmoud Darwish, Sumaih al-Qasim, Fadwa Tawqan, Shafiq Habib, Raed Salah, Ahmed al-Muflah, Muhammad Siyam, Aref al-Sabah, Abdulhalim Abu Aliya, Yousef al-Khatib, and Ibn Khaniyous.

In this study, a variety of diwans[1] by prominent Palestinian poets such as Kamal Qanim, Raed Salah, Ahmed al-Muflah, Shafiq Habib, Muhammad Siyam, Aref al-Sabah, Sumaih al-Qasim, Fadwa Tawqan, Abdulhalim Abu Aliya, Mahmoud Darwish, Yousef al-Khatib, and Saleh Farwanah were examined. In the poems written by these poets, the US has a very destructive, negative image which are visualized in a variety of forms using different techniques.

These poets have offered such imagery using different techniques such as symbols and niqab; the US is symbolized as crocodiles, dogs, crows, wolves, vipers, and worn ropes so as to visualize the nature and main features of the US as a hypocritical, disgraceful, ominous, brutal, and dissolute nation and to show its tyranny and early collapse. The slaughter of Palestinian children on one hand and the condemnation of such cruelty by American authorities on the other hand are reasons why the “crocodile tears” was used as a symbol of the American hypocrisy. Dogs are regarded as a symbol of disgraceful Americans who have infiltrated the untainted sanctum of certain lands, while the crow symbolizes their ominousness and denotes the destruction caused by these people. The wolf is a symbol of their brutality in mass murders during wars, particularly in the Iraq war. The viper signifies the tyranny of the US who has devoured the entire world. Finally, the worn rope is a symbol of the early collapse of any covenants between the US and the occupying regime of Israel which is soon expected to break down.
Niqab is another technique employed by Palestinian poets to visualize the US. The US presidents were masked with images of Nero, the tyrant emperor and the insane Roman, in order to demonstrate their war-mongering attitude and Kaiser-like insanity in a broader sense. The Mongol Hulagu Khan is another niqab associated with the US which signifies the barbarity of the US against other nations, especially Iraq. The severity and multitude of the US’s offenses against other nations have resulted in these poets to associate the mask of Mars, the Roman God of War, with America to point out the country’s thirst for warfare, having gathered all of its focus on conflicts and hostilities. The tempting Satan is another mask associated with the US to point out its deceptive policies; policies through which it is attempted to entice Palestinians to leave their own lands.
Not only did the contemporary Palestinian poets have offered such imagery with respect to the interference of the US in Palestine and its arms and diplomatic support of Israel, but also with regards to the long, destructive Vietnam War, two wars in Iraq, interference in Cuba, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the slaughter of Native Americans, the slavery and torture of black people, etc.

[1]. A collection of poems