The Names of Destiny: Onomastic Cartography of Identity and Exile in Amin Maalouf’s Les Désorientés

Abstract

This article extends and deepens the reflection initiated in “Sesames of Identity and Cultural Portals: Onomastics in Les Désorientés by Amin Maalouf,” by offering a thorough analysis of the symbolic meanings carried by choices of personal names. Through a hermeneutic and semiotic exploration, it reveals how Amin Maalouf embeds subtle narratives of multiple identities, inner exile, and cultural dialogue in the names of his characters. This study especially highlights how these names serve as milestones in a literary cartography where individual memory, cultural heritage, and universal aspirations intersect, thereby exposing the ongoing tensions between rootedness and uprootedness.

Keywords: Onomastics, identity, exile, Amin Maalouf, symbolism, hermeneutics, semiotics, cultural cartography.

Received Date: December 18, 2024                   Accepted Date: January 09, 2025                    Published Date: February 01, 2025

Available Online at https://www.ijsrisjournal.com/index.php/ojsfiles/article/view/346

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15006661