Abstract

Le métro d’Alep is the ninth novel by Syrian writer Maha Hassan, who has lived in France since 2004. It tells the story of Sara, a young Aleppine who came temporarily to Paris. Unfortunately, with the capture of Aleppo by Daesh troops in 2014, she can no longer return to her country and lives in painful exile in the French capital. In this contribution, the reflection will be centered on the question of places in the exilic experience. The novel, in fact, constantly oscillates between the two referential and identity spaces that constitute Paris and Aleppo. It will therefore be a question of highlighting the importance of the place in the semantic configuration of the story based on the referential places and the use of toponyms, in order, secondly, to highlight how the places are organized on a dynamic logic of itinerary which allows us to move from a relationship of opposition between spaces to a relationship of continuity.