Reading Camus in Oran: Kamel Daoud’s Meursault, contre-enquête

Strand, Dana

doi:https://doi.org/10.3828/cfc.2016.30

Strand, Dana

Contemporary French Civilization (2016), 41, (3-4), 449–460.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/cfc.2016.30
Language: English
Pages: 12

Abstract

Kamel Daoud’s reimagining of Camus’s L’Étranger, entitled Meursault, contreenquête, told from the perspective of the brother of the unnamed “Arab” murdered by the novel’s protagonist, has been enthusiastically received by the international media since its publication in 2013. As its title suggests, this essay highlights two essential elements of the remake: first, the physical and temporal displacement that opens the door to revisiting Camus’s story; and second, the important role the narrative act (as both story and history) plays in Daoud’s rereading. In exposing the shifting terrain of interpretation, Daoud’s novel not only reveals Camus’s colonial blinders but also tests the epistemological boundaries of what many critics see as an increasingly inadequate postcolonial discursive space. Through its clever insinuation into the very fabric of Camus’s work, the novel rewrites (without necessarily resolving) some of the significant questions posed by L’Étranger.

Raconté du point de vue du frère de l’Arabe anonyme tué par le protagoniste de L’Étranger, le “remake” du roman de Camus, intitulé Meursault, contre-enquête et écrit par Kamel Daoud, a connu un grand succès international après sa sortie en 2013. Comme le suggère le titre, cet essai met en relief deux éléments primordiaux du livre de Daoud: d’abord, le déplacement physique et temporel qui ouvre la voie à la re-lecture du roman de Camus, et deuxièmement, le rôle important joué par l’acte narratif (en tant qu’“histoire” et “Histoire”) dans son appropriation. Exposant le terrain instable de l’interprétation, le roman de Daoud, tout en révélant les œillères coloniales de Camus, teste les limites épistémologiques de l’espace discursif postcolonial qui, selon beaucoup de critiques, devient de plus en plus insuffisant. A force de s’insinuer ingénieusement dans la trame de l’œuvre de Camus, le roman revoit (sans pour autant résoudre) quelquesunes des questions fondamentales que pose L’Étranger.

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