LINGUISTIC REPRESENTATION OF CULTURAL IDENTITY AND OTHERNESS IN J.-M.G. LE CLEZIO’S NOVEL “DESERT”

Abstract

This paper deals with the linguistic representation of the opposition “migrant’s native culture — other culture” in contemporary French literature by the example of a Nobel prize winner J.-M. G. Le Clézio’s novel “Desert” (1980). A brief description of the period of French history when the novel was published is given; then we proceed to an analysis of the representation of the perception of both cultures (Moroccan as the native one and French as the other one), which goes through several stages: admiration “a priori” for a different culture under the influence of existing stereotypes, loss of cultural identity and adaptation to the otherness of French culture, gradual disappointment, escape from a different culture and return to the native cultural
identity. The most significant linguistic means for the image of each stage, as well as lexical fields, through which both cultures are represented, are revealed.