A travel through oases in French and Arabic literature

Abstract

The Arabic or French novels of Gamal Ghitani, Ibrahim Al-Koni, Pierre Loti, Charles Wallut, Eugène Fromentin, and André Gide are legendary stories located outside of time and linked to a mystical quest. The travel to reach an oasis is symbolical, and the life within it an oasisnade, or oasis narrative. As a dream or a mirage, the oasis is an important imaginary representation for orientalist literature linked with the French colonial process. The main problem for the writer is how to describe poetically such a geographical reality as an oasis inside the complementary reality of the desert, using colours, the “écriture artiste”, or patterns such as the foundation story, the Garden of Eden, or the maze. The identity of the traveller is completely changed through the encounter with the oasis in a spiritual or cultural way.