Reimagining the <i>Bildungsroman</i> : Exploring the “Third Space” in Azouz Begag’s <i>Le gone du Chaâba</i> and Fouad Laroui’s <i>Une année chez les Français</i>

This paper examines the appropriation of the Bildungsroman genre in Azouz Begag’s Le gone du Chaâba (1986) and Fouad Laroui’s Une année chez les Français (2010). These novels trace the transformative journeys of two gifted yet underprivileged boys as they break through the barriers of poverty and racism, succeed at school, and show promise for the future. The narratives in both novels primarily unfold in two distinct settings: the home, depicted as a peripheral and under-resourced space, and the school, where each young protagonist is introduced to French culture and language. The central challenge confronting these characters lies in negotiating the social and cultural disparities between their family life, symbolizing their ethnic origins and heritage, and their school life, emblematic of their identity as French citizens. This paper will analyze how these two novels appropriate and reinterpret the traditional Bildungsroman, particularly by deviating from its conventions through the creation of a “third space”.