Narratives of Diaspora and exile in Arabic and Palestinian poetry

This paper underlines the attitudes of Palestinian / Arab poets toward the issues of exile and identity integral to their traumatic experience of Diaspora and displacement. From a historical context and within the parameters of colonial / postcolonial theory , the paper advocates a new critical perspective exploring the dialectics of exile and identity in Palestinian / Arabic poetry in order to argue that exile , in contemporary world literature , becomes a signifier not only of living outside one's homeland but also of the condition caused by such physical absence. Aiming to reach a state of reconciliation rather than conflict, the poetic voices, analyzed in the paper, reflect a sense of nostalgia and emotional attachment toward their homeland. The paper argues that Palestine, for the Palestinian poets, is not a paradise or an idealistic utopia that only exists in their poetry and imagination but a geographical reality caught up in national and religious limbos and rooted in the trajectories of colonial history and diabolical power politics.