Postcolonial Love Poem: The Role of Water as a Vehicle for Postcolonial Critique in NativeAmerican Poetry

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2024-08-15

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en

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This thesis will focus on Mojave American writer Natalie Diaz’s poetry collection Postcolonial Love Poem. Through using the method of close reading, two poems will be analyzed and situated into a broader context of settler colonialism. To guide the analysis, a theoretical framework will be provided to explore the differences between settler colonialism and Indigenous thinking. Notable ideas that will be explored is the oneness of body and environment in Indigenous thought, mainly using theories by three Indigenous scholars, and the link that exists between colonialism/capitalism and environmental decline. The link between language and colonialism will also be studied. The thesis focuses on how the subjugation of the body, of the environment, and of language are all consequences of colonialism and capitalism. The aim is to understand how poetry can become a site of resistance as Diaz criticizes and offers alternatives to colonial and capitalist worldviews.

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Faculteit der Letteren