Alienation and Identity Formation in the Poetry of Venus Faiq

Abstract

Alienation (Alienation) stands as one of the profound existential themes explored in literature and poetry across various eras. It has accompanied human existence since antiquity, due to its direct connection to individual emotions and sentiments. Given that literature serves as a mirror reflecting human loss and solitude, alienation authentically expresses the writer’s experience with high artistic precision. The central problem of this research stems from a fundamental question: How did Venus Faiq embody the dialectic of loss in her poetic texts? Furthermore, how did the conflict manifest between the original identity and the alternative identity amidst exile and nostalgia?

This study adopts a Descriptive-Analytical approach as its comprehensive methodological framework, monitoring artistic phenomena and recurring themes related to alienation and identity in the poet’s work. Additionally, it utilizes the mechanisms of Psychoanalytic Criticism to examine the relationship between the experience of oppression and poetic language. This approach allows for a deep exploration into the poetic experience, as Faiq’s poetry represents a complex emotional state intertwined with a turbulent geographical reality, rendering the poem a psychological and human document before being a mere linguistic construct.

The study is divided into two main sections: the first addresses Spatial Alienation and provides a brief biography of the poet; the second discusses Self-Alienation and the Reconstitution of Identity. Among the most significant findings is that the poet’s experience is characterized by intense imagery and emotional sincerity derived from her personal history. The poet endures spatial alienation due to exile, and psychological alienation arising from her struggle with a reality that rejects her difference and her multifaceted identity (Kurdish and Arabic). For Faiq, identity is not a static mold but a perpetual journey of self-discovery.

The originality (Scientific Novelty) of this research lies in highlighting Venus Faiq’s experience by linking alienation to identity formation—a perspective that has not received sufficient scholarly attention. This research does not merely observe the phenomenon of exile; rather, it delves into the thorny intersection between personal trauma and cultural identity. It sheds light on the specificity of alienation for the female intellectual and how a woman redefines "Home" and "Identity" when cast into exile. Furthermore, it uncovers psychological and feminine dimensions that may differ from the dominant masculine narratives in the literature of exile. Through the interplay between alienation and identity, the writer portrays the crises of contemporary man. Venus Faiq is among those poets who suffered from the alienation of exile and the fragmentation of identity; thus, alienation became a pivotal axis in her poetry, driving the necessity for this in-depth study.