Regard d'enfant et perspective d'adulte : le travail de la mémoire dans L'Arabe du futur de Riad Sattouf
This thesis aims to explore issues pertaining to the memory process in Riad Sattouf’s autobiographical graphic work The Arab of the Future by focusing on the process of recollection. This approach is characterized by a reciprocation of remoteness and proximity between the view of the child, which is carried by the image, and the perspective of the adult, which is essentially carried by the narration. We study this dynamic in light of the intercultural reality of the author who has a Syrian father and a French mother. Accordingly, the book showcases the cultural identity of a child who left France and was immersed in the culture of the Middle East. By using the recollection process, the autobiography establishes a dialogue between the author’s current writing time and place (today, in France) and his childhood experience (in the eighties, in the Middle East). Our study’s aim is to understand the nature of the relations that are established between narrating subject (the adult) and narrated subject (the child) in the first three volumes of The Arab of the future. We start by studying the child's posture in The Arab of the Future in order to understand the implications of certain recurring aspect that the author associates with childhood (like the artefact or the vivid sensory evocation). Then, we will adress the adult perspective and observe how it sometimes distances itself from the candid child's gaze by using critical comments and time gaps. We will also analyze the use of comedic codes to portray violence, which is most attributable to the adult's vision. The narrator's interventions are therefore often positioned more objectively than the candid child’s view. However, beyond the gaps of the perspectives, we must point out the presence of aspects that bring them closer which at the same time highlight the cultural tension in the comic book especially considering the relationship between the parents. This cultural tension also exists in the character of Riad who has to deal with being different both in Syria and in France.
Graphic literature Contemporary comics Autobiography Self-narrative Middle East Childhood memoirs