Exile and Creativity

Scholarly works on exile and literature skew mostly on the disabling aspect of dislocation. The Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said is well known for characterizing exile as ‘a condition of loss’, a “rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home’ and a ‘crippling sorrow of estrangement’. Mainstream literature largely accepts Said’s account of exile as “loss of identity, artistic crisis and even silence”. There are also other authors who see exile as an opportunity through suffering. A creative person has to write if she is to remain sane.

Writing becomes an act of catharsis or purification. Both arguments may not be false. However, this paper diverts from survival narrative to resource perspective such that writing acquired through unique circumstances is an inducement for creative writing. To a certain extent, negative energy may be an enabling factor for creativity but exilic experience provides rich material for an artist to draw from. The Tigrigna adage ―ጉሁይ ተዛራባይ― (a tormented soul has much to say) provides support to the view that imaginative writing is largely a function of a resource accumulated through the paths taken rather than an act of self-redemption.