A Conflict, Overthrow of Remembering and Forgetting: In the Cases of L'Étranger and Meursault, Contre-enquête

Kamel Daoud's Meursault, Contre-enquêtete changes the general view we have had on L'Étranger as the canon of world classical literature. With Meursault, Contre-enquêtete, LÉtranger is converted to an autobiographical novel based on facts. For most Camus‘ readers, L'Étranger is a novel representing Algeria, but on the contrary, it is a forgetting agent that blurs Algeria. Thus, through Meursault, Contre-enquêtete, Daoud plays a role in evoking Algerian' remembering to restore their impaired identity and recover the tarnished Algeria's reputation. This study will analyze these two works from the perspective of discourse on memory, conduct a theoretical review of remembering, forgetting, and literary works as media, and then interpret Algeria recalled from a colonial perspective in L'Étranger and represented from a postcolonial view in Meursault, Contre-enquêtete. These two works, which testify to the same place, are distinctive in terms of a conflict and overthrow of remembering and forgetting. In particular, 'the subjects of memory', united through Musa and Harun, show the concept of multidirectional memory that strengthens the will to struggle and also heals trauma through the medium of literature. Through this study, as third-party readers, it will be an opportunity to consider how different memories described in literary works dispute and overturn.