Abdelkader Aoudjit Knihy

Algerian Literature: A Reader's Guide and Anthology is a comprehensive text and reader of Algerian literature available in English.

Exploring the intersection of literature and history, this work delves into the motivations, philosophical foundations, and methods employed by Algerian novelists in their engagement with Algeria's past. It highlights the distinct approaches these authors take compared to traditional historical novelists, emphasizing their unique narrative techniques and thematic concerns. The investigation sheds light on the complexities of Algerian identity and the role of fiction in shaping historical understanding.

During the last fifty years, Mouloud Feraoun, Mohammed Dib, Mouloud Mammeri, and Kateb Yacine achieved significant international recognition yet remain little known in the United States. Filling a pressing need, "The Algerian Novel and Colonial Discourse" provides a critical introduction and a new approach to the works of these Algerian novelists. Beginning with an overview of their novels, this book goes on to discuss critical approaches to them, challenging the widely held notion that they are merely ethnographic, upholding the status quo. "The Algerian Novel and Colonial Discourse" provides a new reading, and, most significantly, argues that they are best read as witnesses to the kind of conflict Jean-Francois Lyotard calls a different - a conflict in which one suffers an injustice and is at the same time deprived of the means to argue. "The Algerian Novel and Colonial Discourse" then examines the issue of humanism that the novels allegedly both appeal to and reject and demonstrates that the Algerian authors' condemnation of colonialism is both a coherent political position and consistent with their critique of liberal humanism. It concludes with a discussion on the ongoing relevance of the Algerian novels. -- Back cover