Amin Maalouf ’s essays present the history of the Near and Middle East, with great clarity and wealth of information, and their relations with the West: from the Dérèglement du monde to the Naufrage des civilisations, passing through the Identités meurtrères, the writing alternates the pragmatic level with the explanatory one with metaphorical and autobiographical narration. It is precisely this red thread of the author’s family plots that we want to explore through the images of abandoned houses, to reflect on the conflicts of the territories of the Levant and their ethical and political issues: the large family of Maalouf, with the biographical events of his parents and his grandparents, in fact tells the story of a Mediterranean area, a mosaic of languages, cultures and religions. Greek Catholic, Melkite mother, born in Tanta, Lebanese Presbyterian Protestant father of a large South Arabian tribe (the Ghassanids), Turkish maternal grandmother, married to a Maronite and settled in Egypt, finally his birth in Beirut in 1945 and his life in the village of El Machrah in Mount Lebanon. This cartography weaves the weave of a magnificent Levantine universe, now disappeared, and evokes the intimate memories of the residences and their objects against the background of wars and conflicts. In his chosen homeland, France, Maalouf seeks his new writing home, on the heights of the island of Yeu, in the ocean off the coast of the Vendée, to dream of building ‘bridges’ and becoming a beacon for the ships of civilizations.
AMIN MAALOUF ET LES MAISONS ABANDONNÉES: PARCOURIR L’HISTOIRE DU PROCHE ET DU MOYEN ORIENT À TRAVERS LA CARTOGRAPHIE FAMILIALE
Cettina Rizzo
2023-01-01
Abstract
Amin Maalouf ’s essays present the history of the Near and Middle East, with great clarity and wealth of information, and their relations with the West: from the Dérèglement du monde to the Naufrage des civilisations, passing through the Identités meurtrères, the writing alternates the pragmatic level with the explanatory one with metaphorical and autobiographical narration. It is precisely this red thread of the author’s family plots that we want to explore through the images of abandoned houses, to reflect on the conflicts of the territories of the Levant and their ethical and political issues: the large family of Maalouf, with the biographical events of his parents and his grandparents, in fact tells the story of a Mediterranean area, a mosaic of languages, cultures and religions. Greek Catholic, Melkite mother, born in Tanta, Lebanese Presbyterian Protestant father of a large South Arabian tribe (the Ghassanids), Turkish maternal grandmother, married to a Maronite and settled in Egypt, finally his birth in Beirut in 1945 and his life in the village of El Machrah in Mount Lebanon. This cartography weaves the weave of a magnificent Levantine universe, now disappeared, and evokes the intimate memories of the residences and their objects against the background of wars and conflicts. In his chosen homeland, France, Maalouf seeks his new writing home, on the heights of the island of Yeu, in the ocean off the coast of the Vendée, to dream of building ‘bridges’ and becoming a beacon for the ships of civilizations.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
