Arab in Diaspora and Exile: Reading Edward Said and Mahmoud Darwish Today

Abstract

This research tries to investigate the intricate politics of diaspora, exile and recent refugee issue all over the world by looking at Edward Said and Mahmoud Darwish’s memoir. Representation of exile by writing memoir, therefore, is significant as it narrates the experience of displacement and homelessness which resonates others. This article examines how Edward Said and Mahmoud Darwish aesthetically respond to exile and displacement both within the borders of their own nation space and outside. I argue that the idea of home and homelessness, place or out of place “in setting without real connection” dominates the mind of every exile; every refugee and exile can be both physical and psychological. In today’s context, both Edward Said and Mahmoud Darwish’s works express the solidarity and legitimation towards the struggle of distinct temporalities. Every de-territorialized community seeks for an identity and their lost homeland is always t heart. This study shows how Edward Said and Mahmoud Darwish’s identity are blurred where they have been living in Exile and Diaspora. That is why; both of them develop a contrapuntal consciousness in understanding their split identity which represents millions of others. From that point of view, Mahmoud Darwish’s memoir Memory for forgetfulness, August, Beirut, 1982, and Edward Said’s Out of Place: A Memoir can be representation of all recent refugee and exile issue.