International Journal of Language & Literature

Exile in Contemporary Palestinian Poetry
Hussain Hamzah

Abstract
In contemporary Palestinian poetry, the motif of exile does not appear as a matter of choice but is imposed upon it by the political and social circumstances which the Palestinian people had encountered in 1948. Exile is the antithesis of homeland and invites the use of motifs derived from the conflict between separation from one’s homeland and soil and the desire to return. Among these motifs are memory, nostalgia, return, and absence. Contemporary Palestinian poets use the motif of exile as a sentimental response; for the poets Mu?ammad al-Qaysi, Murid al-Barghuthi, Ibrahim Na?rallah and ?Izz al-Din al-Mana?ra exile is associated with departure, leaving home, death and nostalgia. Among the aforementioned poets, the motif of exile does not exceed the bounds of these sentimental meanings, while in Mu?ammad Darwish’s poetry it goes beyond this to take on the meaning of identity creation and alienation, since he perceived exile as an existential state. Here we attempt to show that the evolution of this motif in Darwish’s works reflects it evolution in contemporary Palestinian poetry.

Full Text: PDF      DOI: 10.15640/ijll.v4n1a31