CULTURAL ALIENATION AND LANGUAGE DISCONTINUITY IN LA MÉMOIRE TATTOUÉE

The question of Alienation is a core subject-matter of human conditioning in the present era. Therefore, it is natural that a controversial issue like alienation should leave such an indelible influence upon contemporary literature. The question of Alienation, in its different manifestations, has been conceptualized and discussed, most importantly, within the existentialistic literary perspective. Due to its historical and socio-cultural conditions, the African as well as the Maghrebian literature could not shy away from the influence of alienation, understood as an identity loss and as a sense of inferiority, experienced either before or after the contact with the Other. The dispossessed personality's search for identity is a commonplace theme in modern fiction. The present paper will discuss the different nuances of the word alienation and analyze this theme in La Mémoire Tattouée (1971), a Moroccan literary text written in French by Abdelkebir Khatibi. The aim is to show how language discontinuity stands as a cause that creates a sense of inferiority, subordination, and alienation. Key words: identity, alienation, inferiority, existentialism, La Mémoire Tatuée, Abdelkebir Khatibi