TRADITION OR MODERNITY: WHICH MODEL FOR THE ALGERIAN NOVEL?

The Algerian novel occupies an important place in the literary world of the French expression. Numerous are the Algerian writers passionned by this way of writing resulting from historical events between Algeria and France. The Algerian author is confused between his traditional society, his roots, his sociocultural environment and the modern one transmitted by the culture of the colon. The reports between tradition and modernity are in the core of the mystery of creation, the act of the creator, indeed, concentrates on heritages but he can always go towards their unforeseen transformations. With a more analytical look, we can state that between both notions, it exists convergent points, this may say that beyond appearances it is impossible to build a tight partition. The tangling of both concepts is revealed in the Algerian novels, for instance, in Kateb yacine, Mouloud Mammeri, Yasmina Khadra, Latifa Ben Mansour et Rachid Mimouni. This is why we have opted for this theme which aimed to: Situate the Algerian novel between these two dichotomies and how the Algerian author apprehends this repport? The present work is based on the study of technics which make the dichotony Tradition/Modernity opposed in time; a cyclicity through a literary creation.

What Was Us, What Is Us

Here Glissant discusses a number of writers: the ethnographic and poetic work of Michel Leiris; Aimé Césaire; Saint-John Perse; Kateb Yacine; Mallarmé’s dream of writing the ‘Book of the World’, contrasted with Segalen’s embracing of diversity; and a detailed account of Yves Bonnefoy’s Du mouvement et de l’immobilité de Douve, and its influence on other poets. There is also a section devoted to Nelson Mandela. Glissant goes on to highlight the similarities between Islam, Christianity and Judaism as monotheistic religions. He then returns to issues he has already raise earlier in the book: the difference between books and the internet; the ‘Chaos-World’ and invariants; different ways of reading, linked to difference between language and langage, and, finally, a definition of the ‘Whole-World’.

French Language

Two strong linguistic ideologies, which could at first seem to be irreconcilable, inform the French language as an ideological notion: French as a universal language, and French as the language of the nation. Late 19th-century linguistic policy reflects this paradoxical conception as the dissemination of the national language, the medium of the ‘mission civilisatrice’, became the object of political consensus, but locally French was scarcely taught, and its actual presence in the colonies was limited and not aimed at widespread political and cultural assimilation. The overseas exportation of the French language is a legacy of French colonial expansion, but that legacy is shared unequally. Often claimed by African writers as a war booty (‘butin de guerre’, Kateb Yacine), French has become a postcolonial issue and realm of memory.

Editorial

We are thrilled, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Sartre Studies International, to publish for the first time in English (thanks to Dennis Gilbert’s initiative and perseverance) two interviews on theater given by Sartre to Russia’s oldest continually running theater journal, Teatr, whose first issues date from the 1930s. Six years apart, these two interviews give us the flavor of Sartre addressing a Soviet audience, in early 1956, just before Russian tanks rolled into Hungary and then again in early 1962, as France negotiated its exit out of the disastrous Algerian War. While these interviews intersect at times with remarks made by Sartre in interviews and lectures during the same period in France (the need for theater to become a truly popular forum, the importance of Brecht as a model of politically engaged theater, etc.), the tone of the two interviews (the first in particular) is different, as Sartre seeks to connect with a socialist audience. These interviews also break new ground. Discussing contemporary playwrights, Sartre demonstrates, for example, his familiarity with Kateb Yacine and Algerian theater. More unexpectedly, addressing Russian readers, Sartre offers a much more positive assessment of Jean Vilar’s Théâtre National Populaire than he ever formulated in France. In short, beyond their content, these interviews help us appreciate even more the importance of the situation shaping Sartre’s pronouncements at any given moment.

Vers les « lignes de fuite » : une écriture à venir dans la littérature mineure francophone

Une mise en comparaison des oeuvres: Prochain épisode de Hubert Acquin, Les rêveries de la femme sauvage : scènes primitives, de Hélène Cixous et Nedjma de Kateb Yacine à travers l'idée d'une "littérature mineure" comme proposée par Deleuze et Guattari dans Kafka : pour une littérature mineure.