Freedom and Oppression in the Poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Habib Jalib – A Comparative Corpus Analysis

Abstract

This study compares two poems written by Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Habib Jalib, and explores the theme of liberty and repression in the poetry works of the two authors through corpus linguistics’ tool such as AntConc. The poetry of Faiz is about the resistances of people in general and about social justice whereas the poetry of Jalib concentrates on the individual opposition to oppression. Qualitative method is used to conduct this study. Through the use of Key Word in Context (KWIC), the collocation, cluster and N-gram, the study identifies the recurring words and phrases concerning these themes in the works of both poets. The study identifies the peculiar language choice patterns followed by Faiz and Jalib to depict the resistance and it provides a new insight of understanding through integrating computers and literary analysis. Future researchers will benefit from this study by understanding how corpus tools might assist them produce their best work.