What is it about?
This article explores Khaled Mattawa’s 2019 poetry collection, Mare Nostrum, which serves as a lyric documentary of the global migration crisis. It examines how Mattawa uses poetic form—specifically three-line stanzas called tercets—to record the brutal realities of illegal migration across the Mediterranean Sea. I contend that while official reports often reduce refugees to mere statistics, Mattawa’s poetry humanizes their experiences, giving voice to those who have been silenced by history and indifference. By blending factual research with artistic expression, the article demonstrates how literature can challenge global apathy and confront the social and political injustices surrounding forced displacement.
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Why is it important?
The ongoing global refugee crisis is currently the largest in history. While news reports often focus on hostile government policies or dry statistics, this work is unique in its focus on lyric documentation—a blend of factual research and poetic artifice that humanizes the migrant experience. By analyzing Khaled Mattawa's Mare Nostrum, the research highlights how poetry can: - Confront Indifference: It challenges the appalling silence of the public by forcing an ethical confrontation with the graphic realities of migration. - Restore Epistemic Agency: It explores how literature gives a voice back to individuals who have been reduced to nameless bodies in official records. - Bridge Cultural Gaps: It examines the use of specific poetic forms to navigate the "native informant" trap and create a shared space of collective consciousness. This work makes a difference by showing that literature is not just a passive art form but a powerful tool for mobilizing global consciousness and rallying free minds against mobility injustices. It encourages readers to move beyond detachment and recognize the migration crisis as a collective global responsibility.
Perspectives
My aim in this work is to fight against all forms of injustice. I believe that Mattawa’s poetry provides a vital opportunity to denounce mobility injustices. Indeed, the right to move safely is a privilege for some but a death sentence for others. Ultimately, this article asserts the transformative power of literature in shaping ethics; it suggests that by reading these poetic records, we can mobilize global consciousness and recognize that the migration crisis is a collective responsibility.
Professor Hager Ben Driss
Université de Tunis
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Against Indifference: Lyric Documentation in Khaled Mattawa’s
Mare Nostrum
(2019), English Studies in Africa, January 2024, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/00138398.2024.2347037.
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