Abstract EN:

This study is based on six novels written in French between 1980 and 2000, of which half are considered to be works of French literature while the other three are counted among contemporary works of Algerian letters. The action of four of them takes place in the desert. Using these as its point of departure, this study traces the textual development of the two thematic orientations – desert and nomadism – which have their roots both in a tradition of literary approaches to desert. This analysis of the textual manifestations of desert and nomadism serves to argue the central thesis that such thematic orientations make metaphorical reference not only to modern writing, but also to a certain intellectual position in a contemporary, socio-political context. This movement from the poetic to arrive at the political while questioning both History and memory, leads to the observation that the themes of desert and nomadism derive from the evolution of two “modernist” literary forms.