Decompor um corpo, compor um poema: a poesia árabe jihadista e o martírio

Abstract

This dissertation examines martyrological manifestations in poetry and in other artistic expressions produced primarily by members of the Islamic State Organization and al-Qaeda. It seeks to demonstrate how these expressions—especially poetic ones—strive to keep the martyr, his message, and his body alive through the word. What becomes evident is that this poetics is not merely an artistic expression, but also an impulse, a desire, a way of granting afterlife to a physicality that, though biologically dead—often destroyed or devastated—aims to remain alive through the verse, functioning simultaneously as rebirth and continuity. The research begins from the understanding that martyrdom, in this context, is not limited to the act of dying for a cause; rather, it constructs an entire symbolism and aesthetics that transcend physical death—or at the very least seek to overcome it. Here, poetry, body, and word intertwine and mutually reinforce one another, creating something akin to a gesture of affirmation and transcendence. This establishes a play between memory and continuity, in which the body becomes a sign and language becomes the vehicle of this immortality: past body, present body, future body.