Migration and the inhospitable reader in Leila Sebbar's le silence des rives (original) (raw)

Expressions Maghrebines, 2014

Abstract

Leila Sebbar’s Le silence des rives (1993) follows the last day in the life of a man who immigrated to France in his youth, married a French woman and never returned to his home on “the other shore.” Many writers in exile have spoken of writing as a substitute homeland, but few have addressed the role of the reader. This essay argues that Sebbar’s protagonist fails to find a home in his writing because to do so depends on finding a hospitable reader. Only once a hospitable reader takes in his writing might he then find a home in his writing. Writing is thus the means by which the protagonists seeks – and fails to find – a hospitable community. Le silence des rives (1993) de Leila Sebbar raconte le dernier jour de la vie d’un homme qui a immigre en France dans sa jeunesse, s’est marie avec une Francaise et n’est jamais rentre chez lui sur « l’autre rive. » De nombreux ecrivains en exil ont parle de l’ecriture comme d’une patrie de substitution, mais peu d’entr’eux se sont interesses ...

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