Writing the Black Decade

Conflict and Criticism in Francophone Algerian Literature

AvJoseph Ford

Häftad, Engelska, 2022

Del i serien After the Empire: The Francophone World and Postcolonial France

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Beskrivning

Writing the Black Decade: Conflict and Criticism in Francophone Algerian Literature examines how literature—and the way we read, classify, and critique literature—impacts our understanding of the world at a time of conflict. Using the bitterly-contested Algerian Civil War as a case study, Joseph Ford argues that, while literature is frequently understood as an illuminating and emancipatory tool, it can, in fact, restrain our understanding of the world during a time of crisis and further entrench the polarized discourses that lead to conflict in the first place. Ford demonstrates how Francophone Algerian literature, along with the cultural and academic criticism that has surrounded it, has mobilized visions of Algeria over the past thirty years that often belie the complex and multi-layered realities of power, resistance, and conflict in the region. Scholars of literature, history, Francophone studies, and international relations will find this book particularly useful.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2022-08-18
Mått:152 x 228 x 14 mm
Vikt:268 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Serie:After the Empire: The Francophone World and Postcolonial France
Antal sidor:178
Förlag:Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
ISBN:9781498581882

Utforska kategorier

Litteraturvetenskap inom Skönlitteratur
Historia inom Historia och arkeologi

Mer om författaren

Joseph Ford is lecturer in French studies at the Institute of Modern Languages Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London.

Recensioner i media

Ford assesses the focus of Algerian writers, artists, and journalists' focus on the events of Algeria's Black Decade (1990s) in their literary and journalistic narratives. He argues that particular authors relied on familiar—recidivist—tropes of Algerian violence inherited from the 1954–62 Algerian War of Independence, mirroring the headlines in the French press. Ford proposes the tropes were appropriated in three ways: some gathered literary accounts rooted in oppositional rendering (Rachid Mimouni, Assia Djebar, and Maïssa Bey [Samia Benameur]); others (Salim Bachi and Habib Ayyoub) inserted their testimonials in allegorical or mythical frameworks…. In dialogue with Valérie Orlando's The Algerian New Novel and Jane Hiddleston’s Writing after Postcolonialism, this informative work problematizes the position of writers facing national tragedy. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Innehållsförteckning

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Writing the Black DecadeChapter 1: Rethinking Testimonial Literature in Rachid Mimouni, Assia Djebar and Maïssa BeyChapter 2: Exploring Complicity in Salim BachiChapter 3: Beyond a Grotesque Aesthetics of the Black Decade in Habib AyyoubChapter 4: Specters of the Black Decade in Kamel Daoud’s Meursault, contre-enquêteChapter 5: Deconstructing Oppositional Criticism in Mustapha Benfodil’s Archéologie du chaos [amoureux]Conclusion: Beyond the Language of Crisis and ConflictBibliographyAbout the Author