Fragments of Meaning: Modernist Eliotian Echoes in Selected Kabyle Songs
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Date
2025-07-07
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Publisher
Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi Ouzou
Abstract
The following research paper entitled Fragments of Meaning: Modernist Eliotian Echoes in Selected Kabyle Songs has explored the modernist techniques and intertextual dynamics in Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922), Ali Amran’s Tizi N Leryaḥ (2013) (translated to “The Valley of Winds”) and Bu Lehmum (2013) (“The Wretched One,” my translation,) and Aït Menguellet’s Ɛli d Weɛli (1977) (translated to “Ali and Ouali.)Despite emerging from distinct cultural and historical contexts, the texts converge on themes of identity, myth, and post-war existential crisis. In order to achieve this objective, I have borrowed Julia Kristeva’s theory of intertextuality as articulated on her work Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art (1980), alongside Friedrich Nietzsche’s conception of Art and Nihilism in The Birth of Tragedy (1872). Kristeva’s theory demonstrates how these modernist texts form an interrelated dialogue; rather than isolated works, forming a web of connected cultural memory rooted in allusions and mythical references. Add to that, Nietzsche’s philosophy, in turn, illuminates how artistic creation functions as a redemptive power within a chaotic modern world. Moreover, this dissertation consists of two major chapters, the first chapter entitled ‘Modernist techniques in T.S Eliot’s The Waste Land and Ali Amran’s Tizi N Leryaḥ and Bu Lehmum,’ establishes the theoretical approach in a detailed interpretation, and offers a comparative analysis of modernist tools such as fragmentation, myth, and spiritual desolation. The second chapter, ‘Modernist techniques in T.S Eliot’s The Waste Land and Aït Menguellet’s Ɛli d Weɛli,’ extends the comparative lens, by examining how Menguellet reinterprets the modernist vision through a postcolonial lens, emphasizing on the artist’s role in spiritual rebirth and cultural resistance. Ultimately, this deep analysis arrives at two major conclusions. First, despite the different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, Eliot’s poem and the selected Kabyle texts share a modernist and philosophical outlook that intertwines fragmentation with renewal. Second, through the perspectives of both Kristeva and Nietzsche, the study demonstrates that these works transform despair into creative expression, using art as a means of redemption and renewal within a fragmented modern landscape.
Description
64p. ; (+CD-Rom)
Keywords
Modernist techniques, Intertextuality, Fragmentation, Spiritual decay, Moral decay, Myth, Cultural memory
Citation
Literature and Interdisciplinary Approaches