POETRY AS RESISTANCE: AN ANALYSIS OF SELECTED POEMS BY RICHARD DE ZOYSA IN THE LIGHT OF BARE LIFE
U.E. Liyanarathna*
Institute of Technology, University of Moratuwa, Homagama, Sri Lanka
Session: Technical Session D
Abstract
This study analyses selected poems by Richard de Zoysa through the theoretical framework of ‘bare life,’ put forth by Giorgio Agamben. It examines how political violence and sovereign power operate through mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion in Sri Lanka’s late 20th century socio-political context. Focusing on four poems, ‘Apocalypse Soon,’ ‘Rites of Passage,’ ‘Gajagavannama,’ and ‘Animal Crackers’ this study examines how de Zoysa’s poetry testifies political violence, ethnic conflict, and state repression The analysis reveals four major insights: first, minority communities are depicted as excluded from political and legal protection, reflecting their reduction to bare life; second, the poems expose how sovereign power suspends law and normalises extra-legal violence in a perpetual state of exception; third, the recurring animal imagery destabilises the human–animal divide, symbolising dehumanisation and complicity in violence; and finally, the tension between bios and zo¯e underscores the fragility of human existence under sovereign rule. By extending Agamben’s framework of bare life to the underexplored field of Sri Lankan anglophone poetry, this study addresses a significant research gap and positions de Zoysa’s work as a powerful literary expression of resistance. In doing so, it contributes to debates in political philosophy, biopolitics, and the role of literature as testimony under authoritarian rule.
Keywords: bare life, Giorgio Agamben, political violence, Richard de Zoysa, state of exception
DOI: 10.64752/URNH1622