Ecopoetics and Decolonial Resistance: the Politics of Land and Language in Selected Poems by Natalie Diaz and Adonis

الملخص

This study examines how selected poems by Natalie Diaz and Adonis transform land and language into sites of cultural, ecological, and decolonial resistance. Their poems are not mere records of environmental degradation or linguistic loss, but use poetic language to challenge forms of cultural and colonial power. Through a comparative textual analysis informed by ecopoetics and decolonial theory, the study examines “The First Water Is the Body” and “They Don’t Love You Like I Love You” by Natalie Diaz and “The Solitary Land”, “The Wound” and “A Vision” by Adonis. Diaz's poetry emphasizes the connection between the Mojave Desert, Native identity and cultural revitalization, and the history of violence against Native land and culture. Adonis' poetry occurs in an Arab and Syrian historical and cultural context and addresses such issues as land, displacement, cultural memory, and linguistic identity. The study argues that despite the significant differences in historical and geographical backgrounds and contexts, both poets render the sites of land and language as sites of contestation and contestation of domination, simultaneously imagining alternative forms of cultural identity and sense of belonging. The study's comparative use of their poetry as a means of dialogue contributes to scholarship on ecopoetics and decolonial resistance by examining the intersections of land and language as sites of power, memory and resistance.