Persian as Mystery and Arabic as the New Dutch

Heterolingualism in Kader Abdolah’s Salam Europa! and Fikry El Azzouzi’s Drarrie in de nacht

Abstract

Salam Europa! (2016) by the Dutch-Iranian writer Kader Abdolah and Drarrie in de nacht (2014) by the Belgian-Moroccan novelist Fikry El Azzouzi are novels written in Dutch, but they are interspersed with elements from other languages. This article examines how these forms of ‘heterolingualism’, defined by Rainier Grutman as the presence of foreign languages in a text, correspond to their authors’ public positioning. The literary analysis draws on Myriam Suchet’s concept of heterolingualism as a ‘continuum of alterity’ and her study of ‘heterolingual dynamics’, as well as on Philippe Blanchet’s work on linguistic boundaries. The effect produced by such heterolingual strategies will subsequently be examined in relation to the authors’ posture. Finally, I will determine to what extent the heterolingual strategies used by Abdolah and El Azzouzi evoke a blending or a juxtaposition of cultures and whether they contribute to a potential rapprochement between different (sub)cultures and social groups in the Netherlands and Flanders.