The poetics of resistance: Mirror of society and social functions in Mahmud Darwish’s Qasidat Al-Ardhwithin Ian Watt’s sociology of literature

Nuzula, Abdinda Firdausi and Munjiah, Ma'rifatul (2025) The poetics of resistance: Mirror of society and social functions in Mahmud Darwish’s Qasidat Al-Ardhwithin Ian Watt’s sociology of literature. Hijai - Journal on Arabic Language and Literature, 08 (02). pp. 244-265. ISSN 2621-1343 (online)

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Abstract

This study examines Mahmud Darwish’s poem “Qasidatu al-Ardh” (“The Poem of the Land”) through the lens of Ian Watt’s sociology of literature to understand how the text reflects and functions within the socio-political realities of Palestine. The study aimsto (1) describe how the poem mirrors the social and political conditions of Palestinian life under occupation, (2) reveal the social values, nationalism, and ideological resistance expressed in the poem, and (3) explain the poem’s social functions as a medium of critique, collective consciousness, and ideological struggle. Using a qualitative-descriptive method, the analysis focuses on close reading of the Arabic text supported by secondary sources on Darwish, Palestinian history, and sociological literarytheory. The findings show that Darwish constructs a poetic landscape in which land, identity, memory, and the body become symbolic sites of conflict and resistance. These results demonstrate that poetry, especially within contexts of oppression, serves asboth a mirror and an agent of social transformation

Item Type:	Journal Article
Keywords:	Ian Watt; Mahmoud Darwish; mirror of society; social function; sociology ofliterature
Subjects:	20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2005 Literary Studies > 200525 Literary Theory 20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2005 Literary Studies > 200599 Literary Studies not elsewhere classified
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities > Department of Arabic Language and Letters
Depositing User:	Ma'rifatul Munjiah
Date Deposited:	22 May 2026 14:39

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