Clin d'il: intertextuality in Ben Jelloun's Les Yeux baisss

This essay examines how Ben Jelloun creates a multi-layered intertextuality in his novel Les Yeux baisss that parallels the critical work of Julia Kristeva. Ben Jelloun transposes sign systems so that the novel becomes the site and the catalyst for a reflexive meditation on the nature of fiction, the process of writing, and the use of language. Just as the main character embodies the fractured life of an emigrant, the prose incarnates a kind of double writing with multiple sub- and intertexts. Considering this novel through the lens of that multi-layered intertextuality allows for deeper and more pointed revelations of its richness.