Resistance in the Desert: A
Postcolonial Reading of the Novel
Desert by Le Clézio
Alani Souleymane
University of Ibadan,
Nigeria
Abstract
Literature about the images of the Maghrebian Arabs was
usually investigated in postcolonial criticism as either withholding the
cultural assumptions produced by Orientalism or proposing an anti-western
critique of the hegemonic West. This paper focused on the subversion of the stereotypes
of the colonised
Maghrebian Arabs in the novel of a contemporary French writer. The study
applied postcolonial literary criticism to explore the experiences of
representation and difference in relation to the colonial discourse of
Orientalism and Fanon’s principles of violence and resistance with a view to
establishing the anti-colonial reactions permeating the novel titled Desert. The
nomadic Arabs were portrayed as freedom lovers who had to
resist the internationally sponsored French army, presented as powerful,
barbaric, repressive and oppressive intruders. Europe was demystified, as a hostile
land, full of disillusion, brutality and deception.
The heroin Lalla epitomised resistance as
evidenced in the condemnation of oppression, forced marriage and exile to
Europe. The existence of discursive resistance in the novel and the will to
give a voice to the marginalized therefore establishes Desert as a postcolonial
work, and more particularly a critique of the West from within.
Keywords: Resistance, Desert Arabs, postcolonial, contemporary
French novel, Le Clézio
No comments:
Post a Comment