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\nISSN: 1353-0194 (Print) 1469-3542 (Online) Journal [homepage: ](homepage: www.tandfonline.com/journals/cbjm20)[www.tandfonline.com/journals/cbjm20](homepage: www.tandfonline.com/journals/cbjm20)  \nPolitics and poetics of witnessing: Choman Hardi and Nazand Begikhani’s poetry of witness in English  \nZhila Gholami  \nTo cite this article: Zhila Gholami (2023) Politics and poetics of witnessing: Choman Hardi and Nazand Begikhani’s poetry of witness in English, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 50:4, 865-886, DOI: 10. 1080/13530194 .2022.2041398  \nTo link to this article: [https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2022.2041398](https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2022.2041398)  \n Published online: 22 Feb 2022.  \n\n|  Submit your article to this journal  |  |\n| --- | --- |\n| | Article views: 2242 |\n| | View related articles  |\n|  View Crossmark data |  |\n|  Citing articles: 1 View citing articles  |  |\n\nFull Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at [https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=cbjm20](https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=cbjm20)  \nBRITISH JOURNAL OF MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES 2023, VOL. 50, NO. 4, 865–886  \n[https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2022.2041398](https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2022.2041398)  \nPolitics and poetics of witnessing: Choman Hardi and Nazand Begikhani’s poetry of witness in English  \nZhila Gholami  \nHumanities, Languages, and Social Sciences, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia  \nABSTRACT  \nThis study is a reading of selected poems of Choman Hardi and Nazand Begikhani—two Kurdish-Iraqi poets—from their collections of poetry in English. It approaches these poems by classifying them as ‘poetry of witness’, a term coined by Carolyn Forché for the poetry that is written after an experience of extremity or in response to an experience of extremity. Drawing on Forché’s (1993; 2011; 2014) theory of poetry of witness as well as Elleke Boehmer’s (2018) position on poetics of trauma and terror in postcolonial writings, this study attempts to investigate both the politics and poetics of witnessing in Hardi and Begikhani’s poetry in English and explores why and how these two poets have borne witness to their experiences and Kurdish traumatic history in a new language and for a new reader. The analysis this study provides will also reveal how poetry bears witness and how it acts as testimony; it identifies the characteristics and literary/aesthetic properties of poetry that make it a particularly powerful means of testimony, expression, and communication.  \n‘It is my feeling that the twentieth-century human condition demands a poetry of witness’, Carolyn Forché (1981) argued in her article ‘El Salvador: An Aide Memoire’. In this article, Forché introduced the notion of ‘poetry of witness’ and argued how poetry bears witness to the human right violations that took place in the twentieth century. According to Forché (1993; 2011; 2014), ‘poetry of witness’, is poetry written in the aftermath of extremity and in response or in a dialectical opposition to an experience of extremity—extremity in its various forms—both personal and collective.1 Extremity is not only and simply an experience of war. As Forché outlined, extremity can be “exile, state censorship, political persecution, house arrest, torture, imprisonment, military occupation, warfare, and assassination.2 Forché dealt with works of poets from different parts of the world, writing across both the twentieth (1993) and twenty first centuries (2014),‘poets who endured conditions of historical and social extremity’, and whose poems are ‘poetic witness to the dark times in which they lived’.3 For Forché (2011), poetry of witness is  \nCONTACT Zhila Gholami  [gholamizhila@yahoo.com](gholamizhila@yahoo.com)  Humanities, Languages, and Social Sciences, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia  \n1Forché, Carolyn. Ed., Against Forgetting: Twentieth-century Poetry ","cbCaifdZINkeL27j","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifdZINkeL27j","pdf",801022,23,"English","# Abstract\n## Poetry of witness theory and origins\n## Politics, poetics, and ethical witnessing\n## Selected poets and English-language collections","[{\"question\":\"What does the study mean by “poetry of witness” in relation to these poets?\",\"answer\":\"The study treats the poems of Hardi and Begikhani as poetry of witness—work written after extremity and in response to experiences of extremity, whether personal or collective.\"},{\"question\":\"Which theoretical frameworks guide the analysis?\",\"answer\":\"The study draws on Carolyn Forché’s theory of poetry of witness and on Elleke Boehmer’s position regarding poetics of trauma and terror in postcolonial writings.\"},{\"question\":\"How do the poems function according to the article’s approach?\",\"answer\":\"The article argues that poetry bears witness as testimony, and it identifies the characteristics and literary/aesthetic properties that make poetry a powerful means of expression and communication.\"}]","Politics and poetics of witnessing: Choman Hardi and Nazand Begikhani’s poetry of witness in English | PDF",58]