Abstract
What is examined here are ways of possibility – be they linguistic, poetic, narrative, rhetorical, and/or existential – explored by a selection of writers and filmmakers in order to present an affective dynamic that extends beyond the stricto sensu realm of literature and film towards culturally, poetically and politically impacting societies in which illusory and ideologically induced identity markers have long been and are still prevalent. In very differenciated modalities related to sociolinguistics, decolonial and trans-national queer theories, this work critically addresses literary and filmic productions by cultural creators from different European and North African countries, along with their fictional characters. The selected authors and directors are each experiencing a situation of un-belonging to any nation-state and are undergoing de-territorialized experiences and processes. These authors and filmmakers share the commonality of being from or linked to former colonial French North Africa, while not necessarily residing in any of its countries. Through a formulation of counter and/or de-identity affects in the literary or visual language they use, they perform an artistic singularity in a variety of forms.