Karima Lazali - Colonial Trauma

To understand and analyze the history of this fear on the level of individual subjectivity and in the context of widespread social decline requires a deeper look at the facts and effects of History. The traces of colonization are drowned out by a noisy conflict that leaves no mark. We will try to penetrate beyond the noise that rings like a case of tinnitus, troubling the “sleep of the just” 24in a crumbling world, in order to hear the faint voices reverberating without content, right there, at the beating heart of history, where writing fails to materialize.

1 1 Sarah Haider, Virgules en trombe (Algiers: APIC Éditions, 2013), p. 44.

2 2 Amin Maalouf, Les Désorientés (Paris: Grasset, 2012), p. 69.

3 3 In November 2001, a brutal flood in the Bab El-Oued neighborhood killed 754 people and left 122 more missing (see “Huit mois après, qu’est Bab El-Oued devenu?,” L’Expression, August 5, 2002, < https://algeria-watch.org/?p=58096>). In May 2003, a violent earthquake struck Bourmerdès, killing an estimated 2,217 people and injuring 9,085 more, not to mention countless missing people, whose numbers are always hard to determine in Algeria (see “Le dernier bilan s’élève à 2217 morts,” Jeune Indépendant, May 27, 2003, < https://algeria-watch.org/?p=5534>).

4 4 Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents (1929), trans. James Strachey (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010), p. 17.

5 5 Mohammed Dib, Dieu en barbarie (Paris: Seuil, 1970), p. 23.

6 6 Dib, L’Arbre à dire (Paris: Albin Michel; Algiers/Hibr, 1998), p. 22.

7 7 Dib, Dieu en barbarie, p. 83.

8 8 Translator’s Note: When possible, I have decided to leave this term untranslated. “Détournement” (literally, “turning away”) is often translated in English as “diversion” or “misuse.” “Détournement de pouvoir” is an “abuse of power” and “détournement de fonds” is the term used for “embezzlement,” just as “détournement d’avion” is how one would talk about a plane being hijacked. In all these cases, one can clearly discern the detour at stake. In literary and artistic discourse, one might think about this as a form of subversive appropriation or deliberate distortion meant to undermine a particular set of power relations. This is often how it is used throughout this work.

9 9 Nabile Farès, L’Exil et le désarroi (Paris: Maspero, 1976), p. 16.

10 10 Samir Toumi, L’Effacement (Algiers: Barzakh, 2016), p. 212. My italics.

11 11 Ibid., p. 213.

12 12 See Jacques Hassoun, Les Contrebandiers de la mémoire (Paris: La Découverte, 2002).

13 13 Dib, Dieu en barbarie, p. 195.

14 14 Amin Zaoui, Le Dernier Juif de Tamentit (Algiers: Barzakh, 2012).

15 15 Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion (1927), trans. James Strachey (New York: Grove Press, 1989), p. 6.

16 16 Ibid.

17 17 Nabile Farès, Le Champ des oliviers (Paris: Seuil, 1972), p. 159. My italics.

18 18 Sigmund Freud, Reflections on War and Death (1915), trans. A. A. Brill and Alfred B. Kuttner (Project Gutenberg < http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35875>).

19 19 Dib, Dieu en barbarie, p. 190.

20 20 Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (1961), trans. Richard Philcox (New York: Grove Press, 2004), p. 116.

21 21 Mohamed Mebtoul, La Citoyenneté en question (Algérie) (Oran: Dar El Adib, 2013), p. 9.

22 22 Ibid., p. 155.

23 23 Dib, Dieu en barbarie, p. 108.

24 24 Mouloud Mammeri, Le Sommeil du juste (Paris: Plon, 1955).

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