The Contextual Alienation in the Poetry of Homsian diasporas Poets

Abstract

       This study examines the phenomenon of contextual (external) alienation in the poetry of Homsi poets who emigrated from the city of Homs in Syria to North and South America at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The study is divided into an introduction and three main sections. The introduction addresses the problematic and ambiguous nature of the alienation phenomenon, the overlapping and intertwined patterns of alienation, and the triggers that formed the core of estrangement and alienation for these poets. The first section examines environmental alienation, including spatial alienation, manifested in longing for Homs and rejection of the new place, and temporal alienation, evident in the feeling of being cut off from a past with ideal values ​​and the regret for its loss. Prior to these sections, the study discusses the role of time and place as two fundamental axes in the life of any individual in this world, as it is impossible to understand existence apart from these two essential axes. The second axis explored socio-political alienation (political and social), encompassing political alienation as expressed in poems confronting the tyranny of power and colonialism, and social alienation—estrangement from both the society of origin and the society of exile. We saw how socio-political alienation plays a central role in understanding the human experience of Homsi exile poets. This is because alienation is not a one-dimensional separation, but rather a complex and interwoven fabric in which political factors, represented by the oppressive practices of power and the denial of rights, intertwine with social factors manifested in the disintegration of bonds, the prevalence of class injustice, and the lack of social cohesion. This is due to the dialectical and close relationship between the political and the social in shaping the experience of alienation. The third axis addressed religious alienation, discussing topics such as the instrumentalization of religion for political purposes, the personal crisis of faith, and the struggle between doubt and certainty. We saw how religious alienation has become an inherent aspect of the crisis of modern man, due to its direct connection to human existence itself. Religion expresses man's connection to existence and non-existence, and provides an explanation for his relationship with the afterlife.