Navigating Belonging and Displacement in Dunya Mikhail's Poetry: A Study of Identity and Exile

This study examines the themes of displacement and belonging in Dunya Mikhail's selected poems, making use of postcolonial theory as a critical lens. By probing works such as "The Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea," "In the Country of My Heart," "The War Works Hard," and "The Iraqi Poet’s Wife," the paper highlights the collapse of identity amongst the convolutions of exile and warfare. The theory, drawing on the thoughts of Homi Bhabha, highlights the changeability of national identity and the involvement of hybridity as Dunya Mikhail navigates her domicile in both her motherland and the diaspora. This examination aims to expose how Mikhail's selected poems function as effective responses to the displacement felt by folks in the wake of the struggle, subsidizing to the greater discourse on the influence of war on individual and collective identity.