La paratopie créatrice dans Boulevard de la guillotine de Cherif Abdedaîm

Abstract

This dissertation examines the notion of creative paratopia in Chérif Abdedaïm’s novel Boulevard de la guillotine, drawing on Dominique Maingueneau’s theoretical framework. The study highlights how the narrative illustrates three central dimensions of paratopia: identity, space, and time. Through the character of Brahim Ben Mansour, an Algerian political prisoner deported to New Caledonia after the 1871 uprising, the novel reveals the destructive impact of colonialism on both individual and collective identity. The analysis demonstrates how the carceral experience becomes an “impossible place,” depriving the protagonist of his dignity, while simultaneously shaping a space of resilience and resistance. The guillotine, as a recurring motif, is interpreted as a symbol of death, fear, and arbitrary justice. The novel thus positions itself between historical testimony and engaged literary writing, transforming marginality into both a creative force and a powerful indictment of colonial oppression. The study concludes that paratopia is not merely a passive condition of exclusion, but an aesthetic and political resource that enables the writer to turn displacement into a voice for the silenced and to reclaim a collective memory that has long been distorted or ignored by official history