Ethnical Relations in Migrant Worker Poetry as Testimony

Abstract

This article seeks to demonstrate that the “personal narratives” of rural migrant worker poetry can be read as testimonies to hidden violence, bearing witness to invisible or unapparent impact of globalization, urbanization, and dehumanizing exploitation of labor by local and global capitalism. Drawing on Judith Butler’s theory about the ethical relationship in testimonies, this article argues that the lyric speaker’s speech establishes an ethical relation of responsibility embedded migrant worker poetry.