<![CDATA[Refugees’ perilous experiences force them to flee home for safety. Their arrival from home country to the host country is not only often reduced to be a statistical number in factual reports but also seen as threats to national well-being. The study aims to provide the argument that poems provide a symbol of resistance towards refugees’ given fate, and offer a platform for them to create their authentic version of knowledge. Poems are chosen to be analyzed in this study as they can mediate the refugees’ unique experiences and their struggle to cope with the changing condition. The study argues that poems of and by refugees can serve as strategic means of preserving memories that connect them with their past, which shape their present and construct an alternative subjectivity against objectification and stereotypes pinned to them. Poems analyzed in this research are ‘Home’ by Warsan Shire, ‘The Icebreaker’ by Yovanka Paquete Perdigao, and ‘Empathy’ by A.E. Stallings. Those excerpts are interpreted through Feminist Refugee Epistemology (FRE), which according to Espiritu (2018), “reveals the hidden political forces within the site of intimate domestic interaction in each refugee’s unique experiences and queer sociality.â€Â The study concluded that poems of and by refugees could facilitate the forced-migrants’ aspiration and create alternative knowledge as opposed to their common objectification in mass-media reports. ]]>
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