De l’indicible et de l’ineffable ou les voix du silence dans l’écriture de Benfodil et de Toumi

Resumo

The French-speaking Algerian writers Mustapha Benfodil and Samir Toumi have two different approaches to silence: one explores the abundance and exuberance of language, the other cultivates the aesthetic’s minimalism. In Bodywriting, two voices echo and resonate through an effervescent language that reveals the anguish and trauma of the main character, the writer Fatimi, as well as the pain and impossible mourning of his widow Mounia. In L’effacement, Toumi describes a nameless character who sees himself without reflection on his 44th birthday. We intend to study the writing strategies of Benfodil and Toumi, who seem to elaborate a poetics of silence ranging from the unspeakable to the ineffable, from profusion to mutism in the face of unspoken history and memory to suggest a “voice coming from elsewhere” inviting us to “watch in silence”.