الممارسات اللّغويّة
Volume 16, Numéro 2, Pages 578-596
2025-12-26
Feeling Colonialism: A Comparative Affective Analysis Of Stephen Dedalus In A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (1916) And Younes/jonas In Ce Que Le Jour Doit à La Nuit (2008)
Authors : Aissaoui Hana . Khelifa Arezki .
Abstract
This paper investigates the representation of identity formation in colonial and postcolonial literature through a comparative study of James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Yasmina Khadra’s Ce que le jour doit à la nuit (2008). Both novels depict protagonists negotiating hybrid identities within the constraints of colonial power. Drawing on affect theory, the study examines how emotions, moods, and atmospheres, such as shame, longing, nostalgia, and inspiration, shape lived experience and subjectivity. Identity is understood not as a fixed or purely ideological construct, but as a process continually marked by affective tensions within family, religion, nationalism, and colonial hierarchies. While Stephen Dedalus channels these tensions into artistic resistance, Younes/Jonas embodies the ambivalence and estrangement of fractured belonging. By situating these narratives side by side, the paper demonstrates that colonial modernity produces shared affective burdens across different contexts. The analysis highlights how literature reveals the emotional dimensions of colonial identity, underscoring the usefulness of affect theory for understanding the complexities of selfhood in divided societies.
Keywords
Affect theory ; Colonial identity ; Hybrid subjectivity ; Comparative literature ; Postcolonial modernity
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