av福利社

Jean-Paul Sartre’s famous question, 鈥淔or whom do we write?鈥� 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, R茅da Bensma茂a argues powerfully against the tendency to view their works not as literary creations worth considering for their innovative style or language but as 鈥渆thnographic鈥� texts and to appraise them only against the 鈥淔rench literary canon.鈥� He casts fresh light on the original literary strategies many such writers have deployed to reappropriate their cultural heritage and 鈥渞econfigure鈥� 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, Bensma茂a draws on contemporary literary and postcolonial theory to 鈥渄eterritorialize鈥� its study. Whether in Assia Djebar’s novels and films, Abdelkebir Khatabi’s prose poems or critical essays, or the novels of Nabile Far猫s, Abdelwahab Meddeb, or Mouloud Feraoun, he raises the veil that hides the intrinsic richness of these artists鈥� works from the eyes of even an attentive audience. Bensma茂a 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 鈥渧irtual鈥� but veritable nations, he sets forth a new and fertile topography for francophone literature.

Awards and Recognition

• Honorable Mention for the 2003 Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for French and Francophone Studies