This thesis critically evaluates the charting of ‘home’ and ‘exile’ in regards to four Diasporic female artists from the Middle East, specifically, Iraq and Palestine. The study employs a dual approach in the examination of Diaspora; a theoretical one that engages in the literature on Diaspora and a practical one founded on the author’s interviews with the artists. Thus a comparative analysis of their biographical narratives with the existing literature underpins the discussion of the various realities of home and exile. Moreover, the study links three broad themes in its analysis and is thereby divided thematically into six chapters, excluding the study’s introduction and conclusion. Providing a sociopolitical perspective, Chapters One and Two examine the modern histories of Iraq and Palestine, depicting the political climate of both countries in general but more specifically in regards to the personal and individual experiences of the artists in their homelands. This, essentially, is set up in a way to illustrate the physical locality from which their uprooting and Diasporic journeys were initiated. Chapters Three and Four offer a theoretical outlook in their analysis of the issues pertaining to Diaspora; Chapter Three examines the Diasporic memories of the artists and their sense of distance from, or attachment to, the homeland from their positions in exile. Through examining the artists’ relationship with the homeland this chapter sheds light on the relationality of place and thus conceptualizes their Diasporic consciousness. Subsequently, Chapter Four demonstrates how the Diasporic consciousness of the artists grounds their ascriptions of ‘home’ and ‘exile’ and the construction of their Diasporic identity. The concluding chapters, Five and Six, grant the artists’ Diasporic trajectories visual narratives through an exploration of their artwork. The chapters uncover personal links between their artwork and their Diasporic context, and therefore highlight their work’s Diasporic iconography and biographical significance. The imagery in these chapters thus offers unique insights into the turmoil of war, exile, and loss, and the complexities of the Diasporic experience. Overall, the study rethinks the concepts of ‘home’ and ‘exile’ as grounded in fixed geographical foundations, and upholds that fundamental to the complex mapping of such notions is its location within the geographies of the mind.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:638831 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Alnahedh, Suha |
| Contributors | Miller, Rory David Morris |
| Publisher | King's College London (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/borders-of-home-and-exile(8a749eec-4363-41e0-9f1f-08357621b621).html |
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