Writing and Reading Together from Colonial Legacy to World-making: The Case of Algerian Bilingual Authors

Kateb Yacine told Geneviève Serreau in 1956 that one does not use a universal language to humiliate a people in its very soul without consequences: sooner or later, the people seize that language and culture for themselves on their way towards freedom. Following this prophecy, Algerian intellectuals have in effect appropriated the French language, which they deploy with a high level of proficiency to address the colonizer in its own language. However, with decolonization, the French language was probed as a legacy of colonialism and an obstacle to Algerian self-realization and cultural authenticity. Algerian governments implemented a top-down Arabization policy, excluding national differences and subscribing wholly to the group of Arab nations. This process alienated those who did not read or speak Arabic in a country that is essentially comprised of a multiplicity of languages, cultures, and identities. This article delves into this bitter polemic as a painstaking search for national identity. It traces the position of the French language in the Algerian intellectual and literary landscape, from an initial gesture of rejection to a later move toward appropriation and nativization.