The Algerian War in French/Algerian Writing: Literary Sites of Memory(French and Francophone Studies)

This is the first book-length study to analyse and problematize the notion of literary texts as 'sites of memory' with regard to the representation of the Algerian War of Independence (195462), and memories of it, in the work of French authors of Algerian origin. The book considers a primary corpus spanning over forty literary texts published between 1981 and 2012, analysing the extent to which texts are able to collect diverse and apparently competing memories, and in the process present the heterogeneous nature of memories of the Algerian War. By setting up the notion of literary texts as 'sites of memory', where the potentially explosive but also consensual encounter between former colonizer and colonized subject takes place, the book contributes to ongoing debates surrounding the contested place of narratives of empire in French collective memory, and the ambiguous place of immigrants from the former colonies and their children in dominant definitions of French identity.

Table of Contents:
Series Editors’ Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: History and Fiction: Literary Spaces, Memorial Spaces Chapter 2: Marginalization, Violence and (Dis)Integration: Sites of Republican Memory and Legacies of the Algerian War Chapter 3: The Entanglement of Dominant and Other Histories: Representations of 17 October 1961 Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Academics and students who are interested in Francophone Postcolonial Studies, representations of the Algerian War, literature and memory, the afterlives of empire, decolonization and immigration.

Review :
"Six decades on from its murderous paroxysm, the Algerian war remains unfinished business. In this important monograph, Jonathan Lewis charts the conflict's memorial trace in the literary production of the Algerian diaspora in France, exploring and explaining writing as a privileged site for understanding this durably traumatic war of decolonization." --Philip Dine, National University of Ireland, Galway "This book is essential reading. Lewis's close, nuanced readings of literary texts are exemplary in the way they bring to the fore the significant contribution that literature can make to understanding the complex history of the Algerian war and its legacies. In doing so, Lewis makes the compelling and convincing case that to understand contemporary France we need to return to the open uncertainties of French/Algerian literature." --Patrick Crowley, University College Cork