L'UTOPIE DE L'INTERNATION LITTERAIRE
“Who still speaks today of THE French literature?” 
It’s in these problematic words that Abdelkebir Khatibi, an eminent figure of the French-speaking 
nations – who has just passed away – defined his critical relation with French language and literature 
in his literary work Figures de l’etranger dans la litterature francaise (Paris: Denoel, 1987). A book 
which presents itself, in its political aspect, as a criticism to the literary nationalism and the hope for 
internationalizing literature the founding fathers of which are a new race of writers called by A. Khatibi: 
“l’etranger professionnel”. This concerns taking literature (any literature) out of its ethno-centric frame 
in a way that questions the confrontation of the native with the extra-native, and the centre with 
periphery. 
My presentation consists in a clarification of the subversive principle on which this utopia is based by 
trying to put into evidence the implicit dialogue that A. Khatibi had with the dissident figures of the 
French literature (Jean Genet, Victor Segalen, Roland Barthes…). 
 
Keywords: Abdekebir Khatibi, professional foreigner, otherness, internationalizing literature, outside