Transcender les oppositions binaires : Une analyse postcoloniale et ontologique du Soi et de l’Autre dans L’Étranger et Meursault, contre-enquête

Abstract

According to Gilbert and Thompson, one of the difficulties faced by many in the field of postcolonial studies is the attempt to overturn the principles and structures of colonial authority that instil and reinforce binary oppositions in postcolonial nations. A literary reconstruction of a colonial text often fails to transcend colonial relations of power. This is because, instead of subverting power relations, the postcolonial remake merely inverts them, thus reinscribing the narrative with the very authority that it seems to contest (5-6). This is the main issue that this thesis aims to address. Kamel Daoud’s Meursault, contre-enquête is a 2013 retelling of Albert Camus’s 1942 colonial classic L’Étranger. The novel provides an alternative version of Camus’s tale from the Arab perspective. For this reason, some may interpret it as a critical postcolonial remake of the original in which Daoud employs the styles and conventions of the Maghrebi novel in ways that critique the Camusian absurd and provide a narrative space, a personal story and a name to the unknown Arab shot by the French protagonist in L’Étranger. However, this thesis argues that Meursault, contre-enquête subverts its own apparent mission to perform a critique of the colonial classic. Through a postcolonial and ontological analysis of the Self and Other in both L’Étranger and Meursault, contre-enquête, it will be revealed that Daoud’s use of mimicry and subversion and his postcolonial inversion of colonial Self/Other binaries produces a nuanced, multi-layered text that both reinscribes and undermines the conventions of the postcolonial remake. In addition, it will be argued that Daoud’s ambiguous narrative both reinforces and subverts the presuppositions of certain readings of L’Étranger, whose one-sided and often opposing interpretations hinder a constructive understanding of the novel. This research also contends that Daoud engages in a critical social discourse that subverts the principles and structures of authority in Algeria whose postcolonial failings, such as the repression of cultural hybridity and freedom of expression, have impacted on the socio-political, economic and cultural progress of the nation. It will also be discussed how this social discourse casts doubt on the reliability of religious, political and cultural narratives. It will be revealed that these metanarratives reinforce a false identity that separates us from ourselves, from others and from reality. This research ultimately aims to establish that Daoud’s nuanced ontological counter-inquiry successfully undercuts the illusion of binary oppositions, both within a postcolonial context, and beyond.