Cultural Hybridisation In Mohammed Dib’s Novel “ L’incendie ” ( The Fire)

Abstract

This study focuses on cultural hybridisation, attempting to investigate its various manifestations and mechanisms in Mohammed Dib’s novel “L’incendie”. The text is analysed in light of the theory of hybridisation in postcolonialism. The emphasis is put on the idea of mixing and the hybrid nature of the text. It is important to understand how combining many procedures and techniques results in this phenomenon of cultural hybridisation. Dib represents the Algerian people’s culture through characters’ names, verbal behaviours and practices. These cultural aspects are presented in the novel’s discourse which uses both French and Arabic. The coexistence of two languages: Arabic and French creates a hybrid language consisting of two cultures. Perhaps this is what makes M Dib’s novel “ L’incendie ” a perfect example of cultural hybridisation in the sense of expressing the Algerian people’s experience and reality, making use of French language and Arabic. This study attempts to show that Dib uses a particular type of French to express what is an integral part of the Algerian society’s cultural heritage. We may say that Dib translates his thoughts into French when describing the living conditions of the Algerians under the colonial domination. The results of the study reveal that the novel represents cultural hybridisation as it depicts the Algerian people’s cultural experience and social reality through using French as a foreign means of communication