Expatriation and Marginalization in Hashim Shafiq’s Poetry: A Study of Cultural Modes

Abstract

      In the 1970s, under the newly-emerging Baathist Iraq, several Iraqi poets chose to exit the country having been forced to move to other countries. The then-Baathist regime’s dictatorial measures and bloody actions forced many writers, poets, and literary figures to move to other countries. As those writers and figures settled in other countries, they started to create their own modes of expression, most of which are ideologically and politically motivated themes and contexts, not to mention their home-connected intentions. With those poets staying in several different Arab and non-Arab countries, they found themselves surrounded by new cultural modes and contexts. The local circumstances in these exile countries imposed new directions on those poets. This study, therefore, investigates this home-exile connection from an Iraqi poet who has once experienced these circumstances. The aim is to examine how the exile-home connection has overshadowed that poet’s poetry