دراسات
Volume 15, Numéro 1, Pages 847-871
2026-06-09
Representations Of The Desert In Abdullah Karroum’s Al-tarhan
Authors : Samiha Abbes .
Abstract
Abstract:This study examines the representations of the desert in contemporary Algerian fiction through an analytical reading of Abdullah Karroum’s novel Al-Tarhan. Adopting a textual and paratextual approach, the article investigates how the desert exceeds its geographical function to become a semantic, cultural, and symbolic structure within the narrative. The analysis begins with the paratextual thresholds—particularly the title—before exploring the material and immaterial manifestations of the desert in the narrative body. The study argues that the desert in Al-Tarhan operates as a dynamic narrative agent shaping characters, structuring conflict, and generating semantic binaries such as life/death, loss/salvation, drought/fertility, and colonialism/resistance. By intertwining realism with symbolic density, the novel reconfigures the desert as a site of identity formation, collective memory, and historical contestation. The findings demonstrate that the desert in contemporary Algerian narrative has shifted from peripheral geography to a central epistemic and aesthetic locus.
Keywords
Desert Fiction ; Algerian Novel ; Narrative Space ; Paratext ; Cultural Identily
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