L’Histoire vue de « l’Autre côté » dans les récits d’Amin Maalouf

Abstract

ON “THE OTHER SIDE” OF HISTORY IN AMIN MAALOUF’S NOVELS The article aims to analyze the relationship between history and fiction in Amin Maalouf ’s novels. Fascinated by history and literature, the Franco-Lebanese writer, tries, in several of his works, to combine history and romance and to make real and fictitious characters coexist in one universe. However, far from being limited to a simple transcription of history, Amin Maalouf has set himself the audacious goal of shedding light on the other side of history, as it was seen and lived on the “other side”; and at the same time he tries to revive the memory of certain figures forgotten or even denigrated by the official historiography. Thus, by rediscovering and reinterpreting history from a new perspective, Amin Maalouf aspires to understand the present and to build bridges between the two shores of the Mediterranean, between the North and the South, and between the East and the West.