The literary space is not just an anodyne scene that is described throughout the diegesis. It is rather a vector of meaning, an agent that structures the plot by conveying social criticisms sought by the author. This paper proposes to study the referential universe cited in L'Ampleur du saccage and Bilqiss – repulsive and sordid suburbs that generate feelings of shame and hatred, zones of tension where the limits become strangely confused, shifted and intertwined. The rhetoric and the representations related to this universe signal a real identity malaise.