28th Annual Student Research Conference
Loss and Longing in Poems Found in Agha Shahid Ali's The Half-Inch Himalayas
Megan C. Sharman
Dr. Hena Ahmad, Faculty Mentor
In The Half-Inch Himalayas Agha Shahid Ali emphasizes a yearning for home. Through the poems, "Postcard from Kashmir," "A Monsoon Note on Old Age," "Vacating an Apartment," and "The Previous Occupant," it is shown that the author's feelings of nostalgia as displayed in the text are reminiscent of his own life. As a self-proclaimed exile, Ali's poems display a rift between himself and his true home. Images of physical displacement in the poems show that the feelings of longing and mourning for a true home stem from the loss of the life the author left behind as he moved west. This analysis will examine Ali's poems from a post-colonialist perspective, in order to prove the relationship between the loss and longing as displayed in the text and the westernization of Ali's life.
Keywords: The Half-Inch Himalayas, Agha Shahid Ali, Home, Loss, India, America, Post-colonialism
Topic(s):English
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 102-2
Location: VH 1010
Time: 8:15