Under the patronage of the Dean of the College of Arts, Prof. Dr. Majid Abdul Hameed Al Kaabi, and within the college’s cultural unit program, a lecture by Dr. Muhammad Al-Shahat, Professor of Criticism and Narrative Studies at the Hedayat Institute for Cultural Studies in Egypt, entitled “Narratives of Exile and Identity: A Cultural Study”, was delivered on Wednesday, 13/4/2022 at 10pm.

The lecture included a set of topics distributed between the clarification of the terminology of exile, cultural studies and narratives, an explanation of the method used in the study of exile narratives, a review of the subject and a part of the exile narratives, and an application on Jabra Ibrahim Jabra's novel "The Search for Walid Masoud". It was concluded with a reference to the nature of cultural study.

Dr. Muhammad Al-Shahat pointed out that the difference between structural narratives and cultural narratives lies in the fact that the latter attempts to find a link between literary texts and the cultural, civilizational and political contexts in which the exile narrative appears. Dr. Al-Shahat stated that exile is any spatial or psychological alienation that affects the writing self.  It is reflected in the representations associated with it and includes exile, migration, displacement, expulsion and the rejection of the minorities in society by majority, and is reflected in the representation of the other, which becomes one of the most prominent concerns of exile narratives, and in the representation of identity.

Speaking on the issue of identity, Dr. Al-Shahat pointed out that identity in the exile novel is not a cultural identity, but rather a narrative identity that expresses the image of the moved self that can only be achieved through the practice of narration and suggested by the culture that lives in its space.