Alienation in the Contemporary Senegalese Arab Novel A Cultural Critical Approach to Omar Lee’s Novel “Death Boats”

Abstract:

The theme of alienation in the contemporary Arab-Senegalese novel is one of the most prominent critical issues that calls for a multidimensional approach, combining the philosophical, cultural, and social. The phenomenon of irregular migration through “death boats” is no longer just a passing event in the African scene, but has turned into a narrative discourse that reflects the crisis of identity and belonging in light of post-colonial transformations. Oumar LY’s novel “Death Boats” presents a narrative text rich in symbols and connotations, marrying individual experience with collective memory, and reposing the question of alienation at the levels of space, time, language, and existence.

The study of this novel is not limited to analyzing the suffering of the immigrant, but goes beyond it to dismantle the narrative structure that produces and reproduces alienation, making it an indicative model of the interaction of Senegalese Arabic literature with the major issues of the age.

This study proceeds from a central question: How does the novel “Death Boats” embody the manifestations of alienation on its multiple levels, and what narrative and cultural mechanisms does it employ to reproduce this alienation in the context of forced migration and diaspora?

The first topic deals with the theoretical and conceptual framework, the second examines the cultural context of the novel, the third topic deals with the manifestations of alienation in the narrative structure, the fourth topic focuses on alienation and cultural identity, the fifth topic deals with alienation and the political and ideological dimension, and the latter topic deals with alienation and writing – the aesthetics of fragmentation.