The Metaphor used as a “Cultural Crossing” through the Complete Works of Vénus Khoury-Ghata ; La métaphore comme 'passeur culturel' dans l'oeuvre de Vénus Khoury-Ghata ; La metafora come “passeur culturale” nell’opera di Vénus Khoury-Ghata

Through her literary works, Francophone Lebanese writer Vénus Khoury-Ghata who resides in Paris, suggests an alternative idea to that of the isolated representation of Lebanon and of the Lebanese identity. Expressed in French from the outside of her motherland’s limits, her point of view makes good use of her marginalization towards the national literature which worries about its “cultural authenticity” while aiming to invent other images of her own country.The literary effect produced through the writing of her poetry and novels, which is situated and placed in the meeting point of cultures and languages, is thought particularly striking through her use of the metaphor. This figure of speech is contemplated primarily through the issues about the representation of the Nation, and it is then dealt with its function of “cultural crossing” through text, firstly in an intercultural perspective and secondly in a transcultural one. Seeing that they consider culture as a process rather than that of heritage, the khouryghatien metaphor in the text stands as a way of disclosing the realms of “possibles” in the Identity studies. In this sense, it plays the same role in Vénus Khoury-Ghata’s work as the Relation in Glissant’s total world. Through the metaphor task, khouryghatien poetry and novels widen national consciousness to the world by encouraging the meeting among multiple cultures and it also works for understanding and reconstructing the identity of the Lebanese people. ; À travers ses créations littéraires, Vénus Khoury-Ghata, écrivaine libanaise francophone vivant à Paris, propose une alternative à une représentation cloisonnante du Liban et de l’identité libanaise. Son regard, développé en français depuis le « dehors », met à profit sa marginalisation à l’égard d’une littérature nationale soucieuse d’« authenticité culturelle » pour inventer d’autres images de son pays d’origine. L’effet littéraire et stylistique produit par une écriture poétique et romanesque, qui se situe à l’intersection des cultures et des ...