The Political Event of the Tunisian Revolution: Aesthetic and Experimental Explorations in Literature and Cinema

Abstract

The political scene generated by the Tunisan revolution offered a good chance for a new generation of artists, both in literature and the cinema, to show their potential. Their works are the result of experience and experimentation. This physical exploration affects simultaneously the way this physical entity is perceived and the environment generated by this historical event. This event was a fertile ground for the emergence of new methods of representation, in literature and films, whether the script was meant for documentaries or fiction. An interesting example is the experiences shown in Aymen Daboussi’s '' Horror of the Eye'' published in 2021, and whose entire oeuvre is meant to represent the revolution as a body experience. The scenes of madness and sex are presented as instances of transgressional aesthetics. In the same respect, Alaeddine Slim’s films, such as '' Tlamess” (Enchantement), describe the experimental spectrum created by an aperture through a line of flight. This article addresses the connection between both worlds, where the body fights against its own limits and the idea of a liberation from within. An immersion inside both worlds, which are above all a form of aesthetics, translates the experience of jouissance with reference to the historical event. This event reactivates the possibility of new experiences thanks to what it offers as new temporal movements.