The Dialectic of Belonging and Loss The Identity Struggle Between Alienation and Nostalgia in Pre-Islamic Poetry in Persia

Abstract

This study explores the dialectic of identity, alienation, and nostalgia in pre-Islamic poetry within Persia (the land of non-Arabs). It asserts that geographical migration was not merely a physical relocation but rather a profound existential alienation that touches the very core of human existence. The study examines the texts of this pre-Islamic diaspora poetry as cultural and historical documents that chronicle the psychological conflict between the authentic Arab self and the non-Arab self. Through an analysis of themes of nostalgia, loss, the tragedy of death in exile, and the stark contradiction between idealized chivalric values and the reality of betrayal, the research clarifies how the experience of spatial and cultural alienation transformed into a catalyst for poetic creativity. Poetry thus became a defensive tool for asserting the self, reviving identity, and rejecting assimilation into a foreign space. I adopted an inductive and analytical approach to exploring specific themes (such as longing, loss, and the tragedy of death in exile), deciphering the codes of literary structure, and employing textual analysis mechanisms (contrasting binaries). I utilized these mechanisms to deconstruct the structure of consciousness in the pre-Islamic poet, focusing particularly on the strategy of contrasting binaries such as freedom and restrictions, sovereignty and domination, and the pre-Islamic ideal of chivalry versus the reality of betrayal, to unleash the tragic charge and highlight the stark contradiction experienced by the self. The research attempted to extrapolate cultural interaction, and to deconstruct the literary structure by deciphering the codes of the literary structure resulting from cultural contact, and to monitor the effect of alienation and the literary repercussions resulting from this contact, and to investigate the effect of the alienation experience in shaping the pre-Islamic poetic text outside the geographical scope of the Arabian Peninsula.