The Influence of the French New Novel on Authors of the Maghreb, 1950 to the New Millennium

FAIN: FT-61551-14

Valerie Key Orlando
University of Maryland, College Park (College Park, MD 20742-5141)

This book project explores how authors of the Maghreb (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia) of French expression were influenced initially in the 1950s and 1960s by leading authors of the New Novel in France. While they relied on certain narrative styles, notions of time, and plot denouement specific to the French New Novel of the era, Maghrebi authors' themes differed from their French national counterparts, often navel-gazing narratives. Maghrebi novels not only questioned the place of a fragmented subject as the product of the ravages of two world wars, modernization, and capitalism (as did French New Novelists Robbe-Grillet, Sarraute and Butor), but also viewed this fragmentation as directly linked to over a century of French colonialism in the Maghreb.

Associated Products

The Algerian New Novel: The Poetics of a Modern Nation, 1950-1979 (Book)
Title: The Algerian New Novel: The Poetics of a Modern Nation, 1950-1979
Author: Valerie K. Orlando
Abstract: Disputing the claim that Algerian writing during the struggle against French colonial rule dealt almost exclusively with revolutionary themes, The Algerian New Novel shows how Algerian authors writing in French actively contributed to the experimental forms of the period, expressing a new age literarily as well as politically and culturally. Looking at canonical Algerian literature as part of the larger literary production in French during decolonization, Valérie K. Orlando considers how novels by Rachid Boudjedra, Mohammed Dib, Assia Djebar, Nabile Farès, Yamina Mechakra, and Kateb Yacine both influenced and were reflectors of the sociopolitical and cultural transformation that took place during this period in Algeria. Although their themes were rooted in Algeria, the avant-garde writing styles of these authors were influenced by early twentieth-century American modernists, the New Novelists of 1940s–50s France, and African American authors of the 1950s–60s. This complex mix of influences led Algerian writers to develop a unique modern literary aesthetic to express their world, a tradition of experimentation and fragmentation that still characterizes the work of contemporary Algerian francophone writers.
Year: 2017
Publisher: Charlottsville: University of Virginia Press
Type: Single author monograph
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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