Images Of Algeria

Module description

For 132 years Algeria was a French colony. Since Algeria won its independence in 1962, after a long and violent war, the Algerian government has distanced the country formally from France, but the two countries' history of entanglement and conflict has left its mark. In the case of Algeria, one dimension of this legacy is the substantial, and still growing, body of literature in French that forms the central focus of this module. We will study a series of influential representations of Algerian culture from the mid-20th century onwards: first, a group of novels from the 1950s, which show something of the impact of French colonialism on Algerian culture, and the beginnings of militant mobilization for national liberation; secondly, Pontecorvo's classic, controversial film about the war of independence, La Bataille d'Alger; and finally a group of more recent texts by women writers which, looking back on the war of independence and encompassing the 'second Algerian war' of the 1990s, are shaped by the authors' troubled pursuit of individual and aesthetic freedom in the post-colonial era.

Assessment details

One 3-hour exam in May

Teaching pattern

Two classes per week.

Suggested reading list

Core texts and materials

Each week you will be expected to bring your own copy of the relevant core written text/s to the seminar. We will study them in the order listed. You are strongly encouraged to acquire hard copies; second-hand copies can usually be found online at low prices.

• Mouloud Feraoun, Le Fils du pauvre (1st version 1950; we will study the 1954 version, i.e. the one now readily available with Seuil/Points).
• Mohammed Dib, La Grande Maison (1952).
• Mohammed Dib, L’Incendie (1954).
• Gillo Pontecorvo (dir.), La Bataille d’Alger (1966) (film – available on DVD in Maughan library, and a screening will be arranged).
• Assia Djebar, Le Blanc de l’Algérie (1995).
• Assia Djebar, La Disparition de la langue française (2003).
• Maïssa Bey, Bleu, blanc, vert (2007).

Please start reading as soon as you can – preferably before the module begins.

Module description disclaimer

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