Civilizational Conflict and the Cultural Identity Crisis As Represented in the Novel “How Close the Sky Seemed” by the Iraqi Writer Batoul Al-Khudairi

The civilizational conflict between Western and Eastern cultures represents an important problem that has caused an identity crisis in many human societies, especially Eastern ones. Some Arab novelists were able to embody this bitter conflict between the western and eastern civilizations, and it is the subject of the relationship between the ego and the other. Although a group of Arab writers had previously raised this civilized problem in their writings, the novel “How Close the Sky Seemed” by the Iraqi writer Batoul Al-Khudairi is one of the creations that presented this issue extensively, as it dealt with it with great accuracy and depth in its civilized (intellectual) level. By clarifying the material, social and psychological aspects of the behavior of the characters in the novel, and began to unveil the fundamental conflict between the two civilizations. This research paper, by relying on the descriptive and analytical approach, aims to shed light on the issue of civilization conflict in that novel through some text samples. In this novel, the father represents a symbol of Arab-Islamic civilization, and the mother represents a symbol of Western civilization, and their daughter was confused about this conflict and had an identity crisis that caused her behavioral fluctuation in customs and traditions, so she does not know who her loyalty is too! Among the most important findings of the study is that the relationship between the ego and the other did not result in this novel in the cross-fertilization and blending of the two civilizations, but rather produced a confused and lost character represented in their daughter, so that she lost her identity, and could not determine her affiliation accurately, but continued to live on fluctuation in her behavior as she was unable to determine her loyalty to each of the two civilizations.