Chapter 4 proposes re-reading the language politics of the Algerian Civil War through the lens of Orientalist modes of evaluating language. It offers a summary of the conditions prevailing during the period of Arabization and its relation to Algerian society and the Algerian economy. This is followed by a comparative reading of Tahir Wattar’s Arabic novel, Al-Zilzal (The Earthquake) (1974), and Tahar Djout’s French novel, L’Invention du désert (The Invention of the Desert) (1987), which both develop a postcolonial critique of the concept of decadence. By narrating the Algerian present through the degenerating consciousness of two figures embodying a highly paternalistic understanding of Islamic tradition, these novels trace the limits of the role of French and Arabic in both Algerian national culture and transnational space. A critique of postcolonial decadence emerges that challenges the very idea of the nation in configurations of the loss inscribed within the discourse of decadence.
