Revisiting Gramsci in Algeria: French cultural hegemony and the limits of the consent/coercion binary in La Mise à Nu

This study presents a post-colonial analysis of Abdelhamid Benhadouga’s La Mise à Nu, set in post-independence Algeria. The novel reflects the lasting influence of French cultural hegemony on Algerian identity, language, and social life. It explores whether this hegemony stemmed from consent, coercion, or a mix of both, while arguing that this binary is insufficient to account for the complexity of postcolonial alignment. The imposition of French, the suppression of Arabic, and the adoption of Western cultural norms illustrate this dynamic. Drawing on selected French excerpts translated using ChatGPT (version 3.5) and manually revised for semantic accuracy, the analysis shows how post-independence Algeria was shaped by colonial force, internalized consent, and overlapping psychological, socio-economic, and cultural pressures structuring apparent choice. It reveals how some Algerians embraced French culture to pursue modernity, while others resisted to reclaim native identity. This tension between tradition and modernity, trauma and national identity, appears in the novel’s hybrid language and behaviors, reflecting uneven and hierarchically structured forms of cultural negotiation. By situating the analysis within the broader historical and ideological legacy of French colonialism, the study highlights the enduring effects of cultural pedagogy that equated Europe with civilization and reconceptualizes postcolonial hegemony as a multi-dimensional process.