Ahmad Matar's Fluctuating Watan Conception: An Interdisciplinary Study

Abstract

Ahmad Matar is an exiled Iraqi poet who applies himself to the cause of freedom. Experiencing internal exile in homeland, Iraq, and external exile in the UK, Matar suffered the traumatic consequences of estrangement. Predictably, the search for watan (Arabic for home) is one of the motifs in his poetry. However, his conception of watan fluctuates throughout his works from the immanent to the transcendental, and back to the immanent. Although many studies addressed different aspects in Matar's poetry, very few investigated the poet's conception of home. The article aims to identify the poet’s uncertainty concerning the concept of watan and explain the reason(s) for this oscillation through critical analysis of selected poems. The Individualistic approach of cultural psychology will be utilized to trace the poet’s different homes. The philosophical approach concerning cultural identity and the meaning of home will also be used to investigate this fluctuation.

Keywords: Ahmad Matar, Arabic exile poetry, concept of home/land, identity, cultural psychology