Political Corruption and Social Decay in Amiri Baraka's Selected Poems

Abstract

This study tends to analyze the theme of political corruption and the decay of society in some of the selected poems of Amiri Baraka and to place this analysis in the context of the theory of power by Michel Foucault. Baraka is a well-known and innovative African-American poet and activist, his poems are generally characterized by the intricate presentation of the prevalent power dynamics in the political context and the decay of the society in order to offer a critical perspective on the state of American society. This study will analyze the poems of Baraka in the light of the main concepts and operations that were explained by Foucault's work. The study ultimately aims to show the mechanisms of power and the resulting social decay in contemporary America.

This study starts out by first establishing the theoretical framework that is going to be used in the analytical framework, this theoretical framework depends basically on Foucault's theory of power, which highlights key concepts, such as power as a pervasive and productive force rather than a repressive one, and the notion of power being dispersed throughout society, exerting influence on all aspects of human life. These theoretical notions will be used in this study as a lens to examine the poems of Baraka. The following step will be to analyze some of Baraka's poems with a particular focus on those aspects and lines that explicitly address political corruption and social decay in the American society. All of the poems that are going to be analyzed in this study share the same premises of criticizing the institutional power dynamics that are prevalent in the designated society, these poems tend to expose the corrupt practices and the resulting decay in various realms such as politics, economics, and culture. The study will also focus on the particular poetic language and the vivid imagery that were used in Baraka's poems in order to detect the consequences of unchecked power and its impact on marginalized communities.

The use of Foucault's theory about power will provide this study with the intended objectives of understanding the detailed interplay between power and social decay in the poems of Baraka. The analysis emphasizes the fact the political corruption and the abuse of power by the people in states of power can gravely contribute to the erosion of the social fabric of the community and consequently results in injustice and marginalization of some groups in the society. Baraka's poems are known to examine the way by which power dynamics can be considered as disciplinary mechanisms that shape and control the actions and thoughts of different people. Additionally, this study will discuss the possibility that the poems of Baraka offer a cry to resist the prevalent power structures. Baraka aims to expose the corrupted political practices that result in the fatal decay of the society and the social relationships and this necessitates the call for collective action and social change, as these poems act as potent tools for raising awareness and mobilizing the people to challenge and transform the existing power dynamics in their respected societies.