EXPLORING TRAUMA AND HOPE IN REFUGEES’ POEMS

A situation of enforced migration in which individuals are compelled to migrate against their own causes a sense of displacement (Shamsuddoha et al., 2012). As of 2019, UNHCR has confirmed a population of 79.5 million forcibly displaced refugees, which accounts for nearly one percent of the global p...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Emily Kui-Ling Lau, Nur Amalina Roslim, Nur Syasya Qistina Mazeree, Jia jin Tao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Islam Sumatera Utara (UISU) 2021-06-01
Series:Language Literacy: Journal of Linguistics, Literature, and Language Teaching
Subjects:
Online Access:https://jurnal.uisu.ac.id/index.php/languageliteracy/article/view/3709
Description
Summary:A situation of enforced migration in which individuals are compelled to migrate against their own causes a sense of displacement (Shamsuddoha et al., 2012). As of 2019, UNHCR has confirmed a population of 79.5 million forcibly displaced refugees, which accounts for nearly one percent of the global population. Displaced refugees is a topic that has gained international focus in numerous disciplines - anthropography, geopolitics, health sciences, to name a few. This paper examines displaced refugees through two recent poems composed in 2018: Greetings to the People of Europe by Alemu Tebeje and When Exile Comes: How the Brain Reacts to Trauma by Eric Ngalle Charles. Both poets have lived as refugees, and they both have experienced displacement and consequently, its hardships. It aims to provide a linguistic lens in analysing displaced refugees’ plights by identifying and foregrounding distinctive linguistic devices in the poems.  The in-depth stylistic analysis of the poems unveils that, while trauma is commonly discovered, hope and future viewpoints are equally registered.
ISSN:2580-8672
2580-9962