A comparative analysis of 100 Kurdish novels (written in Kurmanji dialect) examines how Kurdistan, the homeland of Kurds and Kurdish identity, is constructed within the territory of Turkish Kurdistan and in its diaspora. Stateless, mostly displaced and constantly in movement, Kurds lack a real territorial homeland, yet base their national identity on the notion of Kurdistan as their mythical homeland. Kurdish novelistic discourse suggests that definitions of Kurdish identity and ‘home-land’ are relative, depending on ideology and personal experiences, and that ‘Home’, ‘homeland’ and ‘landscape’ as social constructs, are not static entities but change constantly over time. A humanistic geographical approach sees literature, particularly the novel, as an instrument of geographical inquiry into a society or a nation. Using that model, and employing textual and contextual approaches, the study shows how and why the nation/society is constructed and clarifies the sense of home-land and identity embedded in the texts. The novelistic discourse in which ‘home-land’ becomes an ideological construct is mainly shaped by the political views of the novelists. However, compared to the novelistic discourse in Turkish Kurdistan, the Kurdish diaspora novelists have gathered around more diverse ideologies and politics that have led to diverse ‘home-land’ images. The novelistic discourse in Turkish Kurdistan also offers more nostalgic elements whereas diaspora theorists and scholars had identified these as exclusive to the literary works in exile. It can be concluded that feelings of nostalgia are invoked as much by the reality of living in fragmented territory and in a situation of statelessness, oppression and domination, as they are when living at a distance, removed from such experiences. In other words, although living in home territories, the literary characters still experience a sense of migration and detachment from home, which is infused with alienation and loneliness as if they are physically away from their homeland.

Ce travail vise une exploration du sens autour de l’identité dans les romans de Sylvie Germain qui est une auteure importante de la littérature française contemporaine. L’univers romanesque de l’auteure interroge l’existence humaine et incite le lecteur à se poser des questions sur la vie et l’identité. En mettant en jeu la vie fictive de ses personnages, Sylvie Germain dénonce les contraintes du monde moderne et contemporaine qui provoquent les troubles de l'identité chez les gens. Les romans de notre corpus (“Chanson des Mal-aimants”, “Magnus”, “L’inaperçu”) sont traversés par cette problématique de l’identité qui marque tout le parcours des acteurs-personnages. Dans notre étude, nous nous proposons de mettre en évidence les différents aspects de la problématique identitaire dans une perspective sémiotique. En examinant le dispositif affectif, cognitif et modal des personnages romanesques, nous nous attardons sur leurs rôles et attitudes de façon à relever le changement et la permanence dans leur construction identitaire. Notre étude s’appuie notamment sur l’analyse des “formes de vie” qui déterminent les modes d’existence et de persévérance des personnages dans leur cours de vie marqué par l’incertitude et les obstacles. Notre analyse cherche à déterminer les perturbations qui affectent la construction identitaire des personnages. A travers l’analyse sémiotique qui nous permet d’étudier les différentes dimensions du discours romanesque - narrative, figurative, affective, énonciative-, nous nous proposons de saisir les éléments significatifs concernant la configuration de l’identité dans l’univers romanesque de Sylvie Germain. / This work aims to explore the meaning of identity in the novels of Sylvie Germain, who is an important author of contemporary French literature. The novelistic universe of the author que stions the human existence and encourages the reader to ask questions about life and identity. By putting into play the fictional life of her characters, Sylvie Germain denounces the constraints of the modern and contemporary world that cause identity disorders in people. The novels of our corpus ("The Song of False lovers ", "Magnus", "Hidden Lives") are met by this issue of identity that marks the whole journey of actors-characters. In our study, we propose to highlight the different aspects of the problem of identity in a semiotic perspective. By examining the affective, cognitive and modal features of the fictional characters, we focus on their roles and attitudes in order to identify change and permanence in their identity construction. Our study is based in particular on the analysis of "life forms" which determine the modes of existence and perseverance of the characters in their course of life marked by uncertainty and obstacles. Our analysis seeks to determine the disturbances that affect the identity construction of the characters. Through the semiotic analysis that allows us to study the different dimensions of the novelistic discourse-narrative, figurative, affective, enunciative-we propose to capture the significant elements concerning the configuration of identity in Sylvie Germain’s novel universe.