Experimental Nations: Or, the Invention of the Maghreb (Translation Transnation)

229 Pages·2003·0.66 MB·English

by  Reda Bensmaia

Experimental Nations
T R A N S L A T I O N T R A N S N A T I O N
S E R I E S E D I T O R E M I L Y A P T E R
WritingOutsidetheNation BY AZADE SEYHAN
TheLiteraryChannel:TheInter-NationalInventionoftheNovel
EDITED BY MARGARET COHEN AND CAROLYN DEVER
AmbassadorsofCulture:TheTransamericanOriginsofLatinoWriting
BY KIRSTEN SILVA GRUESZ
WhatIsWorldLiterature? BY DAVID DAMROSCH
ExperimentalNations:Or,theInventionoftheMaghreb
BY RE´DA BENSMA¨IA
RE´ DA BENSMA¨IA
Experimental Nations
Or, the Invention of the Maghreb
TRANSLATED BY ALYSON WATERS
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON AND OXFORD
Copyright©2003byPrincetonUniversityPress
PublishedbyPrincetonUniversityPress,41WilliamStreet,
Princeton,NewJersey08540
IntheUnitedKingdom:PrincetonUniversityPress,
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AllRightsReserved
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Bensma¨ıa,Re´da
[Nationsexpe´rimentales.English]
Experimentalnations:or,theinventionoftheMaghreb/Re´daBensma¨ıa;translatedbyAlyson
Waters.
p.cm.—(Translation/transnation)
Includesbibliographicalreferenceandindex.
ISBN:0-691-08936-1(alk.paper)—ISBN:0-691-08937-X(pbk.:alk.paper)
1.NorthAfricanliterature(French)—Historyandcriticism.I.Waters,Alyson,1955–
II.Title.III.Series.
PQ3988.5.N6B466132003
840.9′961—dc21 2002074906
BritishLibraryCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailable.
ThisbookhasbeencomposedinMinionwithGillSansdisplay.
Printedonacid-freepaper.∞
www.pupress.princeton.edu
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
INTRODUCTION
Isan“Experimental”NationPossible? 1
1
NationsofWriters 11
1. Cultural“Terrain” 11
2. ANewGeolinguistics 14
2
CitiesofWriters 27
1. TheImaginaryoftheMedinainFrancophoneLiterature
fromtheMaghreb 27
2. Algiers/Paris,ortheCityasa“SiteofMemory”:
MerzakAllouache’sSalutCousin 38
3
NabileFare`s,orHowtoBecome“Minoritarian” 47
4
PostcolonialNations:PoliticalorPoeticAllegories?
(OnTaharDjaout’sL’inventiondude´sert) 67
5
(Hi)storiesofExpatriation:VirtualCountries 83
1. AssiaDjebar’sLaNoubadesfemmesduMontChenoua:
IntroductiontotheCinematicFragment 83
v
6
MultilingualismandNational“Traits” 99
1. “TranslatingorWhitingOutLanguage”:On
Khatibi’sAmourBilingue 99
2. OnKhatibi’sNotionofthe“ProfessionalTraveler” 124
3. WritingMetafiction:OnKhatibi’sLelivredusang 135
7
TheCartographyoftheNation:MouloudFeraoun’s
LefilsdupauvreRevisited 149
8
ByWayofaConclusion 159
APPENDIX
LeDe´pays:OnChrisMarker’sLettredeSibe´rie(1957) 165
NOTES 171
INDEX NOMINUM 205
INDEX REUM 209
vi CONTENTS
TRANSLATOR’SNOTE
Where a published English version of authors cited was available, I
haveuseditthroughout,andmadereferencetoitaccordingly.Allother
translationsofcitationsaremyown.Chapter5,section1,andchapter
6, section 3, of this book were translated by Jennifer Curtiss Gage.
I would like to thank Re´daBensma¨ıa for his generous and pa-
tientresponsestomyqueriesoverthecourseofthistranslation.Iwould
alsoliketothankGwenae¨lKerlidouandRogerCelestinforlendingme,
on occasion, their g´enie de la (bi) langue.
vii
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thisbookiscomposedoftextsthatcovermorethantenyearsofwork
onFrancophoneliteraturefromtheMaghreb.Itwouldneverhaveseen
thelightofdayhaditnotbeenforEmilyApter’spersistentandpersis-
tently friendly offer to include one of my books in the series she edits
for Princeton University Press. I owe to her my awareness that these
texts, which had each taken shape in specific historical circumstances,
together sketched out the map of a “country” that I did not yet know
and would only discover at the end of my journey. As I was piecing
together the different sections of this map, the experimental nature of
the works under study here began to emerge as the discovery of a sui
generisvirtualreality,thatis,ofanunknownMaghrebthatborewithin
it a mad, intense hope. And now, at the moment this book is being
published, I cannot forget that Algeria is filled with a violence that
divides it internally, and separates it from the other countries of the
Maghreb as well. This is yet one more reason not to be discouraged
and to continue, resolutely, to survey the territory.
There is the map that this book represents—a map that is no
doubt partial in both senses of the word: incomplete and biased. But
there are also the sections of this map I mentioned above, and whose
contours I could not have begun to trace without the help of those
explorers who have accompanied me since the start of my work. Only
after the fact did I realize how impossible it would have been to travel
across such uneven terrain had I not encountered these inspiring pio-
neers: Franc¸oise Lionnet, Ronnie Scharfman, Danielle Marx-Scouras,
ix