When Tablets Speak: Examining Diasporic Identity in Dunya Mikhail s Poetry

The study aims to demonstrate that diasporic people feel nostalgia for the spiritual value of their homes, not for their physical location. The diaspora theory is applied to frame the analysis of Dunya Mikhail’s selected poems. They represent how diasporic identity is intrinsically linked to the recollection of one’s native culture from positive and negative perspectives. This paper argues that diaspora and traumatic memories of the past impact the formation of the exilic identity, and there is a considerable link between the two. It deals with weighty themes, including migration, homelessness, loss, and nostalgia. It examines the poetry of the Iraqi-American poet Dunya Mikhail (1965–), who has innovated a new poetic genre known as ‘tablets poems’. Furthermore, it exemplifies how diasporic experiences and painful memories may influence the formation of an immigrant’s identity upon arrival. It contends that historical events will always loom large in the minds of immigrants and will always impact their present-day lives.