إشكاليّة الهويّة في الّرواية الأفريقيّة المكتوبة باللّغة الفرنسيّة

Abstract

This research entitled ""The problem of identity in French-written African novels- the case of the Great Sahara-"" deals with the problem of identity in the modern and contemporary African novel, at different ideological and aesthetic levels. The research is centered on the identity as the most sought after entity in contemporary African cultural history, in the context of the building of the despoiled African entity. This entity questions it own existence through the perception it has of itself, of the other and of the whole colonization experience, in a reflective perspective tending to identify identity and allowing the overlap of oneself with the other. The self-reconstruction becomes a moment of complementarity working for the reconstruction of the narrative identity. This is the point at which we decipher identity as a narration in which and through which it can actually be realized. Accordingly, narration becomes a component of identity. This study and its multiple axes fall within the framework of what has become known as “Postcolonial discourse”, as well as within the framework of cultural criticism, contemporary literary theory, and new cultural studies that influenced the way we treat literature and its related disciplines which is now focused on the political and social roles literatures are fulfilling. From this perspective, the purpose of this research is to answer questions pertaining essentially to cultural criticism and literary theory and seeking to identify the relationship between philosophico- ideological structures (identity) and their representations in creative novelistic texts, together with their potential aesthetic interactions. To reach answers to these questions, the functioning of the African identity, in particular the effect it produces on the structure of the novelistic discourse is examined according to four axes, namely: The axis of narratological vision and formula: in which we investigate forms of speech (direct, indirect, abridged) generated by the relations the narrator create with the characters’ discourse. The space axis: in which we investigate the interpretative dimensions (cultural, religious, civilizational) that this space offers as a semantic structure formed according to the autobiographical vision in the spatial and biographical formation which is attached to the dichotomy of form/content. The temporal axis: this axis is treated at the horizontal and verticals as dictated by the methodology. The vertical level is dealt with through the scenic and descriptive vision. The vertical level is dealt with through memorial and speculative visions. The characters axis: in this axis we relied on some classifications suggested by Philippe Hamon such as the referential characters (historical or figurative) and levels of descriptions, by examining the structure of the character through the sentences, statements, sayings reported about her/him and actions produced by her/him.