Confiding into childhood memories in Sur mes traces of Rajae Benchemsi

Abstract

Sur mes traces (Benchemsi, 2012), a collection of short stories with autobiographical overtones, evokes the self-searching journey of a lucid and self-aware narrator. Within her parental home, she travels back in time and draws upon childhood memories to mourn, albeit belatedly. Moreover, she employs a subversive and defiant “I” to reject the ancestral norms of a society deeply rooted in its archaisms, while revisiting—through a framework of homage and recognition—the suspicious death of her father. Through a voice that blends nostalgia, joy, and critical insight, the collection represents a return to the past as a means of reconciling the narrator with her psychic wounds and of rediscovering the meaning of life in each story. In this respect, the use of a psychoanalytic approach aims to superimpose the text’s unconscious dimension with that of the writer, Benchemsi, as well as with the text’s own latent meaning. Accordingly, the portrayal of a rebellious female protagonist challenges the subaltern status of Moroccan women, questioning not only the social codes that expel the female presence from the public sphere, but also the long-standing stereotypes attached to womanhood. This study therefore seeks to analyze the scriptural and psychological stakes of this militant revolt through the evolving psychological transformation of the narrator-heroine throughout the narrative.