Shadows of Past in Shahid Ali’s Poetry

Abstract

Abstract

Diaspora? has come a long way from its original meaning based primarily on the Jewish paradigm of expulsion and return. These days, it extends to any group of people living in displacement. Though migration may be caused by some material, political or academic reasons, yet all expatriates struggle with the problematic of identity, loss, alienation, loneliness and socio-cultural discord. Such a group, according to Jaques Derrida, is bound to be traumatized by questions like: ?Where are we? Where do we find ourselves? With whom can we identify in order to affirm our own identity and to tell ourselves our own identity?? (Qtd. in Pranjape 32). In this context, the memories, recollections and thoughts of the homeland and the past associated with it provide succor from such disturbing questions. Diasporic writers/poets, irrespective of geographical, ethnic, social or linguistic backgrounds, often try to re-create the images of the bygone world to tackle the discontents endemic to their exilic situation. Agha Shahid Ali, a Kashmiri-American poet is in no way immune to the psychological demands of such a state of expatriation manifesting themselves in the form of nostalgia, recollections and haunting memories. The present paper is an attempt to discover how Shahid Ali lends voice to his exilic angst originating from the long shadows of the wistful reminiscences of his homeland.