Experimental nations, or, The invention of the Maghreb / Reda Bensmaia ; translated by Alyson Waters.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bensmaïa, Réda.

Contributor:

Waters, Alyson, 1955-

Series:

Translation/transnation.

Translation/transnation

Standardized Title:

Nations expérimentales. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

North African literature (French)--History and criticism.

North African literature (French).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (229 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Other Title:

Experimental nations

Invention of the Maghreb

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Jean-Paul Sartre's famous question, "For whom do we write?" strikes close to home for francophone writers from the Maghreb. Do these writers address their compatriots, many of whom are illiterate or read no French, or a broader audience beyond Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia? In Experimental Nations, Réda Bensmaïa argues powerfully against the tendency to view their works not as literary creations worth considering for their innovative style or language but as "ethnographic" texts and to appraise them only against the "French literary canon." He casts fresh light on the original literary strategies many such writers have deployed to reappropriate their cultural heritage and "reconfigure" their nations in the decades since colonialism. Tracing the move from the anticolonial, nationalist, and arabist literature of the early years to the relative cosmopolitanism and diversity of Maghrebi francophone literature today, Bensmaïa draws on contemporary literary and postcolonial theory to "deterritorialize" its study. Whether in Assia Djebar's novels and films, Abdelkebir Khatabi's prose poems or critical essays, or the novels of Nabile Farès, Abdelwahab Meddeb, or Mouloud Feraoun, he raises the veil that hides the intrinsic richness of these artists' works from the eyes of even an attentive audience. Bensmaïa shows us how such Maghrebi writers have opened their nations as territories to rediscover and stake out, to invent, while creating a new language. In presenting this masterful account of "virtual" but veritable nations, he sets forth a new and fertile topography for francophone literature.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Translation Note

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Is an "Experimental" Nation Possible?

1. Nations of Writers

2. Cities of Writers

3. Nabile Farès, or How to Become "Minoritarian"

4. Postcolonial Nations: Political or Poetic Allegories?

5. (Hi)stories of Expatriation: Virtual Countries

6. Multilingualism and National "Traits"

7. The Cartography of the Nation

8. By Way of a Conclusion

Appendix: Le Dépays: On Chris Marker's Lettre de Sibérie (1957)

Notes

Index Nominum

Index Reum

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612159091

9781282159099

1282159097

9781400825646

1400825644

OCLC:

436089380