Transgression créative et équilibre normatif : pratiques d’hybridation arabe-français chez Yasmina Khadra et Alexandre Najjar

Abstract

This article offers a comparative analysis of Arabic–French hybridization in two Mediterranean Francophone novels: Ce que le jour doit à la nuit (2008) by Yasmina Khadra and Mimosa (2017) by Alexandre Najjar. Drawing on contact linguistics and sociocritical approaches, it examines direct borrowings from dialectal Arabic, lexical creations and hybrid forms, as well as shifts in register. The analysis brings to light two contrasting authorial stances: a “creative transgression” in Khadra’s novel, where Arabic lexicon is woven into the French narrative without mediation, and a more “normative balance” in Najjar’s text, where dialectal insertions are consistently glossed and translated. These stances reflect distinct sociolinguistic legacies—the Algerian “rupture” Francophonie on the one hand, and a Lebanese Francophonie of continuity and prestige on the other—and point to two different ways of negotiating the norms of central French within the Arab–Mediterranean Francophone space.