Olivia C. Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780804794213
- eISBN:
- 9780804796859
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804794213.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
Against the critical tendency to read Albert Memmi’s texts on colonialism and Zionism separately, Chapter Four examines his pro-Israeli essays through the lens of his theoretical analyses and ...
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Against the critical tendency to read Albert Memmi’s texts on colonialism and Zionism separately, Chapter Four examines his pro-Israeli essays through the lens of his theoretical analyses and fictional representations of the colonial separation between Jews and Arabs. Memmi’s early critique of colonial minority politics seems to disappear from his later work, which endorses the colonial (and Zionist) separation between Jews and Arabs in order to claim Jewish indigeneity in Palestine. Yet even his most pro-Israeli essays make surprising comparisons between Palestinians and Maghrebis, including those he hesitantly calls “Arab Jews.” Despite Memmi’s apparent about-face from anticolonialism to Zionism, his later writings betray a transcolonial understanding of Palestine.Less
Against the critical tendency to read Albert Memmi’s texts on colonialism and Zionism separately, Chapter Four examines his pro-Israeli essays through the lens of his theoretical analyses and fictional representations of the colonial separation between Jews and Arabs. Memmi’s early critique of colonial minority politics seems to disappear from his later work, which endorses the colonial (and Zionist) separation between Jews and Arabs in order to claim Jewish indigeneity in Palestine. Yet even his most pro-Israeli essays make surprising comparisons between Palestinians and Maghrebis, including those he hesitantly calls “Arab Jews.” Despite Memmi’s apparent about-face from anticolonialism to Zionism, his later writings betray a transcolonial understanding of Palestine.
Debra Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780853236597
- eISBN:
- 9781846312625
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846312625
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This book offers an in-depth study of the autobiographical writings of four twentieth-century writers from North Africa — Assia Djebar, Mouloud Feraoun, Abdelkébir Khatibi and Albert Memmi — as they ...
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This book offers an in-depth study of the autobiographical writings of four twentieth-century writers from North Africa — Assia Djebar, Mouloud Feraoun, Abdelkébir Khatibi and Albert Memmi — as they explore issues of language, identity and the individual's relationship to history. The book places these writers in a clearly defined theoretical context, introducing and contextualising each of the four through the application of postcolonial studies and literary theory on autobiography linked to close textual reading of their works. Avoiding both psychoanalytical theory and approaches concerned primarily with the writer's ‘testimony value’, the book concentrates instead on the poetic and literary qualities of each author's work, dwelling on the politics and poetics of identity, as well as the ethics and aesthetics of this literature. It includes clear discussions of key terms such as ‘postcolonial’, ‘Francophone’ and ‘autobiography’, which current academic discourse has rendered very complex and even opaque. The book includes a fascinating photograph of two stone tablets inscribed with Punic and Numidian scripts.Less
This book offers an in-depth study of the autobiographical writings of four twentieth-century writers from North Africa — Assia Djebar, Mouloud Feraoun, Abdelkébir Khatibi and Albert Memmi — as they explore issues of language, identity and the individual's relationship to history. The book places these writers in a clearly defined theoretical context, introducing and contextualising each of the four through the application of postcolonial studies and literary theory on autobiography linked to close textual reading of their works. Avoiding both psychoanalytical theory and approaches concerned primarily with the writer's ‘testimony value’, the book concentrates instead on the poetic and literary qualities of each author's work, dwelling on the politics and poetics of identity, as well as the ethics and aesthetics of this literature. It includes clear discussions of key terms such as ‘postcolonial’, ‘Francophone’ and ‘autobiography’, which current academic discourse has rendered very complex and even opaque. The book includes a fascinating photograph of two stone tablets inscribed with Punic and Numidian scripts.
Patrick Crowley (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846310546
- eISBN:
- 9781846319808
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846319808.010
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Albert Memmi published his first novel, The Pillar of Salt, in 1953. Since then, he has come up with works that offer a trenchant critique of colonialism, consistently bringing attention to the ...
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Albert Memmi published his first novel, The Pillar of Salt, in 1953. Since then, he has come up with works that offer a trenchant critique of colonialism, consistently bringing attention to the cultural imbrications caused by the colonial situation. Memmi has sought to tackle issues of domination and difference through his critiques of colonial society, his perspectives on racism, and his stand on issues ranging from nationalism to freedom, cultural assimilation, displacement, and alienation. His oeuvre leans towards reconciliation and social justice while highlighting the difficulties of complete assimilation and acculturation. Memmi's novels, including The Scorpion or the Imaginary Confession (1969), often deal with the mediation of difference. In his recent work, Memmi has argued that France's immigrant communities must integrate, even at the expense of their ‘difference’. He draws upon autobiographical experience and works it into ideal types or portraits in his work.Less
Albert Memmi published his first novel, The Pillar of Salt, in 1953. Since then, he has come up with works that offer a trenchant critique of colonialism, consistently bringing attention to the cultural imbrications caused by the colonial situation. Memmi has sought to tackle issues of domination and difference through his critiques of colonial society, his perspectives on racism, and his stand on issues ranging from nationalism to freedom, cultural assimilation, displacement, and alienation. His oeuvre leans towards reconciliation and social justice while highlighting the difficulties of complete assimilation and acculturation. Memmi's novels, including The Scorpion or the Imaginary Confession (1969), often deal with the mediation of difference. In his recent work, Memmi has argued that France's immigrant communities must integrate, even at the expense of their ‘difference’. He draws upon autobiographical experience and works it into ideal types or portraits in his work.
Nicholas Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781786941763
- eISBN:
- 9781789629965
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781786941763.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
This chapter extends Chapter 4’s examination of the impact of colonial schooling on Assia Djebar, Mohammed Dib, Albert Memmi and other writers. It reflects on what went on inside the classroom, and ...
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This chapter extends Chapter 4’s examination of the impact of colonial schooling on Assia Djebar, Mohammed Dib, Albert Memmi and other writers. It reflects on what went on inside the classroom, and speculates on what it was, even in a colonial education, that made it fruitful, at least in some respects, for some students. It begins by considering the dynamics – inadvertent and perverse from a colonial perspective – that sometimes made French schooling positively politicizing for colonized students, notably in relation to notions of nationalism, national identity and language politics. It then focuses on writers’ accounts of studying the French language and French literature, evidently a key part of the process, educational and psychological, that brought into being their ‘francophone’ works, which duly reflect back on their colonial/literary/educational experiences. In these ways the chapter explores how some of the children subjected to colonial schooling became some of its most astute critics, as well as its greatest success stories; and how French/colonial schooling helped shape the forms and fictions of self-reinvention for which many of the writers are known. [177]Less
This chapter extends Chapter 4’s examination of the impact of colonial schooling on Assia Djebar, Mohammed Dib, Albert Memmi and other writers. It reflects on what went on inside the classroom, and speculates on what it was, even in a colonial education, that made it fruitful, at least in some respects, for some students. It begins by considering the dynamics – inadvertent and perverse from a colonial perspective – that sometimes made French schooling positively politicizing for colonized students, notably in relation to notions of nationalism, national identity and language politics. It then focuses on writers’ accounts of studying the French language and French literature, evidently a key part of the process, educational and psychological, that brought into being their ‘francophone’ works, which duly reflect back on their colonial/literary/educational experiences. In these ways the chapter explores how some of the children subjected to colonial schooling became some of its most astute critics, as well as its greatest success stories; and how French/colonial schooling helped shape the forms and fictions of self-reinvention for which many of the writers are known. [177]
Bryan Cheyette
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780300093186
- eISBN:
- 9780300199376
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300093186.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This book throws new light on a wide range of modern and contemporary writers—some at the heart of the canon, others more marginal—to explore the power and limitations of the diasporic imagination ...
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This book throws new light on a wide range of modern and contemporary writers—some at the heart of the canon, others more marginal—to explore the power and limitations of the diasporic imagination after the Second World War. Moving from early responses to the death camps and decolonization, through internationally prominent literature after the Second World War, it culminates in fresh engagements with contemporary Jewish, post-ethnic, and postcolonial writers. The author regards many of the twentieth- and twenty-first-century luminaries he examines—among them Hannah Arendt, Anita Desai, Frantz Fanon, Albert Memmi, Primo Levi, Caryl Phillips, Philip Roth, Salman Rushdie, Edward Said, Zadie Smith, and Muriel Spark—as critical exemplars of the diasporic imagination. Against the discrete disciplinary thinking of the academy, he elaborates and argues for a new comparative approach across Jewish and postcolonial histories and literatures. And in so doing, the author illuminates the ways in which histories and cultures can be imagined across national and communal boundaries.Less
This book throws new light on a wide range of modern and contemporary writers—some at the heart of the canon, others more marginal—to explore the power and limitations of the diasporic imagination after the Second World War. Moving from early responses to the death camps and decolonization, through internationally prominent literature after the Second World War, it culminates in fresh engagements with contemporary Jewish, post-ethnic, and postcolonial writers. The author regards many of the twentieth- and twenty-first-century luminaries he examines—among them Hannah Arendt, Anita Desai, Frantz Fanon, Albert Memmi, Primo Levi, Caryl Phillips, Philip Roth, Salman Rushdie, Edward Said, Zadie Smith, and Muriel Spark—as critical exemplars of the diasporic imagination. Against the discrete disciplinary thinking of the academy, he elaborates and argues for a new comparative approach across Jewish and postcolonial histories and literatures. And in so doing, the author illuminates the ways in which histories and cultures can be imagined across national and communal boundaries.
Mary Jean Green (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846310546
- eISBN:
- 9781846319808
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846319808.021
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Within Quebec the term ‘postcolonial’ is generally ignored. The complex ways in which Quebec can be considered postcolonial in a historical sense, and in which postcolonial readings of Quebec ...
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Within Quebec the term ‘postcolonial’ is generally ignored. The complex ways in which Quebec can be considered postcolonial in a historical sense, and in which postcolonial readings of Quebec literature can be useful, have been the subject of considerable debate. In The Coloniser and the Colonised (1957), Albert Memmi tackles the postcoloniality of Quebec. Yet, even in its expanded form, postcolonial studies appears to have been an unattractive discipline in Quebec, particularly given the absence of a single Quebec intellectual in the postcolonial anthologies. While Quebec's Quiet Revolution has often been interpreted as signifying a profound break between tradition and modernity, this view has recently been challenged by Quebec historians Claude Denis, Claude Couture, and Linda Cardinal.Less
Within Quebec the term ‘postcolonial’ is generally ignored. The complex ways in which Quebec can be considered postcolonial in a historical sense, and in which postcolonial readings of Quebec literature can be useful, have been the subject of considerable debate. In The Coloniser and the Colonised (1957), Albert Memmi tackles the postcoloniality of Quebec. Yet, even in its expanded form, postcolonial studies appears to have been an unattractive discipline in Quebec, particularly given the absence of a single Quebec intellectual in the postcolonial anthologies. While Quebec's Quiet Revolution has often been interpreted as signifying a profound break between tradition and modernity, this view has recently been challenged by Quebec historians Claude Denis, Claude Couture, and Linda Cardinal.
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780853236597
- eISBN:
- 9781846312625
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780853236597.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to explore the question of the relationship between the writer's self and literary expression. The analysis focuses on the work of four ...
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This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to explore the question of the relationship between the writer's self and literary expression. The analysis focuses on the work of four North African writers: Mouloud Feraoun, Assia Djebar, Albert Memmi and Abdelkébir Khatibi. The writers share a complex relationship with language, since all of them write in French, a legacy of colonial intervention in those countries, but this relationship varies according to differences in ethnic identity, class and gender. The structure and organization of the present study are also described.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to explore the question of the relationship between the writer's self and literary expression. The analysis focuses on the work of four North African writers: Mouloud Feraoun, Assia Djebar, Albert Memmi and Abdelkébir Khatibi. The writers share a complex relationship with language, since all of them write in French, a legacy of colonial intervention in those countries, but this relationship varies according to differences in ethnic identity, class and gender. The structure and organization of the present study are also described.
Colin R. Alexander
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- August 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780199493739
- eISBN:
- 9780199096954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199493739.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
The introductory chapter articulates the book’s central argument about colonialism, which it defines as rule by outsiders for the benefit of outsiders, a structure that results in the extreme ...
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The introductory chapter articulates the book’s central argument about colonialism, which it defines as rule by outsiders for the benefit of outsiders, a structure that results in the extreme suppression of a majority for the vast prosperity of a minority. However, the ICS officers who administered colonial rule in India were also vulnerable to the colonial experience because colonialism is a dehumanizing experience for all those engaged with its power structures. Beyond this, the chapter provides initial information around the life and career of Sir Andrew Clow, the book’s main character. Clow was involved in the crucial events before, during, and after World War II in British-ruled India that affected the outcome of the conflict as a whole but also helped set the platform for the subsequent collapse of the age of British imperialism.Less
The introductory chapter articulates the book’s central argument about colonialism, which it defines as rule by outsiders for the benefit of outsiders, a structure that results in the extreme suppression of a majority for the vast prosperity of a minority. However, the ICS officers who administered colonial rule in India were also vulnerable to the colonial experience because colonialism is a dehumanizing experience for all those engaged with its power structures. Beyond this, the chapter provides initial information around the life and career of Sir Andrew Clow, the book’s main character. Clow was involved in the crucial events before, during, and after World War II in British-ruled India that affected the outcome of the conflict as a whole but also helped set the platform for the subsequent collapse of the age of British imperialism.
