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Portrait of an Arab Jew: Albert Memmi and the Politics of Indigeneity

Olivia C. Harrison

in Transcolonial Maghreb: Imagining Palestine in the Era of Decolonization

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 ... More

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

Albert Memmi: The Conflict of Legacies

Patrick Crowley (ed.)

in Postcolonial Thought in the French-speaking World

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 ... More

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

French Lessons

Nicholas Harrison

in Our Civilizing Mission: The Lessons of Colonial Education

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 ... More

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

Locating Quebec on the Postcolonial Map

Mary Jean Green (ed.)

in Postcolonial Thought in the French-speaking World

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 ... More

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

Introduction: A Place in the Word

in Autobiography and Independence: Selfhood and Creativity in North African Postcolonial Writing in French

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 ... More

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

Introduction: Colonialism and the Colonial Mind

Colin R. Alexander

in Administering Colonialism and War: The Political Life of Sir Andrew Clow of the Indian Civil Service

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 ... More

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