Identity, Linguistic Exile, and Silence in Leïla Sebbar’s Je ne parle pas la langue de mon père and l’arabe comme un chant secret

Abstract

This article examines identity, linguistic exile and silence in Leïla Sebbar’s autobiographical narratives Je ne parle pas la langue de mon père (2003) and L’arabe comme un chant secret (2010) (2^nd edition), exploring how Sebbar reclaims the silenced memories of displacement and cultural fragmentation experienced by Franco-Algerian identity. Drawing on postcolonial memory and cultural studies frameworks and autobiographical diaries, the analysis engages in close textual readings of the novels. Through narrative strategies that foreground linguistic and cultural hybridity, they articulate the complex negotiations of identity faced by individuals caught between colonial histories and postcolonial realities. The analysis highlights how Sebbar’s works challenge monolithic conceptions of belonging by emphasising exile as both a rupture and a site of creative memory reclamation, thereby contributing to broader discourses on diaspora, memory, and identity formation in contemporary Francophone literature.