Albert Memmi

A Portrait of a Foreigner. Identity Crisis and Literary Creation

Abstract

Albert Memmi’s first autobiographical novel, called La statue de sel, was published in 1953. Born in a Jewish family, Memmi grows up in Tunisia at a time where this Muslim majority country was still a French protectorate. Growing up in such an ex-ceptional environment causes him a seri-ous identity crisis. At 35, Memmi realizes that only literature can help him under-stand his place in the world. In this paper, we would like to analyze the feeling of strangeness Albert Memmi grew up with, paying special attention to his books: La statue de sel and the Portrait du colonisé, an essay published in 1957 as a theoretical complement to the novel.