L'espace urbain indien dans la littà©rature europà©enne au XXà¨me siecle. Pour une perspective post-orientaliste.

The emergence of the Edward Said's theory of "imaginative geography" (†œOrientalism†�, 1978), over the last thirty years, has imposed to textual criticism a purely socio-political (Gramscian and Foucauldian) orientation, offering a single interpretation of a heterogeneous corpus of texts (scientific and artistic, ancient and modern) having in common the characteristics of "representing the East". It follows that the European construction of the Oriental space is not just a misunderstanding, but a tendentious representation aiming to support Western imperialism. In particular, the "feminized" representation of eastern geography (as the theatre of the exploit of the white male) is supposed to allow the political subjugation and the economic exploitation of the countries to the East of Europe. If †œOrientalism†� has experienced mixed fortunes since its publication in the 80ies, in recent years, a real anti-saidian current has gained strength. The thesis a aims to show the limits of the saà¯dien theoretical approach through the analysis of about thirty French, Belgian, English and Italian works of the 20th century, focusing on examination of the representation of Indian urban space in contemporary European literature. More specifically, a study of the new models and structures of the Indian space's feminization will try to contribute in filling the gap in the studies of the saidian perspective towards the approach of †œpost-orientalism†�.