Remnants of the Franco-Algerian Fracture: The Struggle With Postcolonial Minority Identity in Contemporary Francophone Literature

Abstract

This dissertation examines colonial legacies and transnational identities in the works of four francophone writers from Algeria: Hélène Cixous, Zahia Rahmani, Nina Bouraoui, and Boualem Sansal. Their autobiographical and fictional texts focus respectively on the history and memory of a particular minority identity singled out by French colonialism: the Jews of Algeria, the Harkis (indigenous Algerians who fought in the French Army during the War of Independence), the “métis” (mixed-race) individuals, and the “pieds-noirs” (European settlers). The memory of these historical minorities still continue to shape identities in contemporary Algerian and French societies, beset by “wars of memory” about the colonial past and the War of Independence. The writers’ texts confront the official memory and national narratives of both France and Algeria. By employing literature as a tribunal for history and by constructing a memorial discourse dissonant with official historical narratives, these writers not only disrupt the public understanding of Franco-Algerian history, but also blame the French and Algerian governments for their personal or collective tragedies. The political charge is carried within the texts’ particular stories of exile and loss. The four narrators in their respective texts are like orphans of Algeria displaced in France mourning the double loss of the Algerian land and their father, who embodies the country of origin.