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a peer-reviewed quarterly journal on literature
E-ISSN 2457-0265
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Erothanatos
Scholarly Article
Sami Hossain Chisty
Kaiser Haq’s “Ode on the Lungi”: A Resistance to the Politics of Socio-Semiotic Violence
Volume
5
Issue
2
Pages:
19-31
Keywords:
Resistance, politics, socio-semiotics, violence, symbols, colonialism
doi:
Abstract
This paper is an attempt to project Kaiser Haq’s one of the most celebrated poems “Ode on the Lungi” as a resistance to the politics of socio-semiotic violence. Literature and politics are two interconnected phenomena. The contemporary version of Colonialism employs the politics of engineering its target nation’s sociosemiotics to maintain an invisible dominance. Socio-semiotics refers to anything non-material like religion, culture, and tradition. Socio-semiotic violence means invading the socio-semiotic systems of a nation and replacing and distorting its symbols or at least the understanding of the symbols. This paper argues that the renowned Bangladeshi poet Kaiser Haq in his poem “Ode on the Lungi” has created a resistance to the politics of socio-semiotic violence by tracing the conspiracy, celebrating the native way of being and doing, and calling for a united stand.
About the Author
Sami Hossain Chisty is a Bangladeshi academician, creative writer, and public speaker. He is currently working as a lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literature at Notre Dame University Bangladesh. Sami earned his Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in English and MA in English Literature from the Department of English, University of Dhaka. Sami’s areas of interest include Subaltern Linguistics, Postmodernism, and Critical Theory. Sami won the 1st position in P3-FLC International Multi-lingual Poetry Competition in 2020 organized by the University of Sydney. He is an active member of Free Linguistic Conference of the Department of Linguistics, University of Sydney. He has done CREDIBLE Projects under the supervision of FLC.