Under the novelistic writing: crisscrossing between history and story

Abstract

A testament to the undeniable vitality of contemporary writing, the historicizing mode of the novel underscores a desire for truth as a means of understanding the present: just as historians are drawn to fiction, novelists are equally inspired by history, which serves as a significant source of their creativity and demonstrates their commitment. This article aims to explore the novelistic discourse in its rewriting of history and to analyze it through the lens of identity and otherness about a new sense of temporality, as exemplified in the works of Alexandre Najjar. In these novels, history, fiction, confession, biography, and autofiction blend through diverse forms such as letters, memoirs, filial narratives, and portraits. The result is a hybrid creation on the boundary between the novel and historical truth—a merging of history and its narrative, allowing for an examination of representation, reconstruction, and the reconfiguration of figures of otherness. These figures are explored through psychological, philosophical, and archetypal concepts.