Autobiographie et écriture de l’intime dans les romans de Malika Mokeddem

Abstract

University studies dealing with autobiographical texts raise the following problem : How writers tell their stories ? The question of intimacy writing remains because of criteria that can explain the proportion of intimate revelations in a life story. Therefore, researchers have established a classification of intimate writings which is not always obvious to apply to autobiographical writings. Criteria such as religion, nationality, gender, social or economic status of the various authors (Hubier, 2003 : 68) have shown that it is somehow complicated to apply them to all texts. It means that autobiographical writers do not write their intimate lives in the same way. We have tried through the example of Malika Mokeddem, who is an Algerian French-speaking writer, to show precisely that she is an exception compared to other North African writers who opt for a kind of reserve tendency to make their family and social life more beautiful. Many of the criteria cited above are not applicable to her, she makes revelations about her experience without considering, for example, the religious, or social factor. She says, instead, and without any taboo the truth even if it could sometimes offend the sensibilities of others. Malika Mokeddem does not consider this factor because, the most important thing for her is to relate her tumultuous life with her family and people who drove her to exile. She makes a plea to justify her refusal to be identified to her community. Every step of her life takes her away from her family and even from the people who loved her.

Keywords

• autobiography
• self-expression
• the expression of intimity
• internal exile
• geographically exile