Arabic Poetry through the Lens of Comparative Literature: The Literature of Iraq and Libya

Diaspora as one of the main discussed themes in the modern literature means that there are many people who are away from their own country and are deprived of growing up in their true homeland. This study aims to apply the tenets of American school comparative literature to analyze the two pieces of poetry titled as Tigris the Donor of Welfare (Ya Dijlat Alkhayr) by Muhammad Mahdi Al-Jawahiri (1899-1997) as one of the most famous modern Iraqi poets and Date Palm Trinity by Khaled Mattawa (1964- ) as an eminent Libyan-American poet, writer, and translator in order to explore the theme of diaspora in their poetry. Both poets have written and published their works in diaspora. To do so, this study will compare the previously mentioned poems in order to find their similar and different features and the significance of these features. Likewise, and regarding the notions of diaspora and Arab exile, this paper will benefit from the theories of Edward Said, Salhi, Netton, Faist, and finally Al-Maleh. It is concluded that these two poets personal experiences like being exiled have been reflected through their writings in order to create an intimate text which in turn validated their poems.

Keywords:

Comparative Literature , Date Palm Trinity , Diaspora , Exile , Homelessness , Migration , Tigris the Donor of Welfare