Slittamento onomastico e smarrimento esistenziale in “Celui qui est digne d’être aimé’ di Abdellah Taïa

Abstract

The attention towards proper names is a distinctive feature of Moroccan francophone writer Abellah Taïa’s work, constantly blurring boundaries between autobiography and fiction. Divided into Arab and French, though rich in cross-cultural references, the anthroponymic repertoire of his novel Celui qui est digne d’être aimé (2017) summarizes and problematizes the main issues the book deals with in a postcolonial perspective, at the intersection of gender, language and ethnicity. Analysed against the background of his previous writings, the onomastic variations undergone by the protagonist Ahmed, whom Taïa conceives as his heteronym, as well as by some secondary characters, sheds new light on the image of the author his narrative conveys by rethinking transnational homosexual identity.