Kayode Ayobami Atilade

The question of home has been a central theme in contemporary African literature especially in the Maghrebian Francophone writings. The paradox of the African world as a recurring feature in postcolonial writings is conceptualized in the trope of home. Tahar Ben Jelloun is one writer whose novels encapsulate the concept of home. His novels have received tremendous critical attention but with little attention from the linguistic perspective. Since language in itself has capacity to communicate to the society, this work, using Critical Discourse Analysis as theoretical framework, examines the way he deploys linguistic tools to communicate his thematic preoccupation. It studies the way language is used to unveil ideologies and expose social anomies that problematize the notion of home in Jelloun’s novels. It observes that the characters’ conceptions of their home obviously reflect in their discourses as they denigrate everything it represents and long for alternative home away from home.

The paradox of the African world is now a recurring feature in postcolonial writings and this is being conceptualized in the trope of home. Tahar Ben Jelloun is a writer whose novels aim at deconstructing the conventional notion of home by exposing cultural disorientedness and socio-political disillusionment that characterize the African societies. His novels have received critical attention but with little from the linguistic perspective. Since language in itself has a duty to communicate to the society, this work, using Critical Discourse Analysis as investigative tool, examines the way Ben Jelloun deploys discursive strategies to subvert ‘home’. It studies the way language is used to unveil ideologies and expose social anomies that problematize the notion of home in Jelloun’s novels. It is observed that the characters’ conceptions of their home obviously reflect in their discourses as they denigrate everything it represents and long for alternative loci away from home.