History's Place: Nostalgia and the City in French Algerian Literature (After the Empire: The Francophone World and Postcolonial France)

History's Place explores nostalgia as one of the defining aspects of the relationship between France and North Africa. Dr. Seth Graebner argues that France's most important colony developed a historical consciousness through literature, and that post-colonial writers revised it while retaining its dominant effect. The North African city became a privileged place in the relationship between literacy and historical discourses in the colony. Graebner analyzes the importance of architecture and urbanism as markers of historical development, as the urban fabric and descriptions of it became signs of difference between metropole and colony. Discussing writers as diverse as Bertrand, Randau, and Kateb, this book examines how the changing Algerian city has remained the locus of a debate colored by various sorts of nostalgia. Graebner demonstrates that nostalgia was symptomatic of historical anxiety generated by colonial conditions, but with literary consequences for mainland France as well. History's Place is a comprehensive and valuable addition to the study of French literature and cultural studies. History's Place Explores Nostalgia As One Of The Defining Aspects Of The Relationship Between France And North Africa. Seth Graebner Argues That France's Most Important Colony Developed A Historical Consciousness Through Literature And That Postcolonial Writers Revised It While Retaining Its Dominant Effect.--jacket. Introduction : Out Of Time And Out Of Place -- Louis Bertrand And The Building Of L'afrique Latine -- Robert Randau And The Algérianistes' Algeria -- The Roman Indigène : Anthropological Fiction And Its Consequences -- 1930 : The Cult Of Memory -- Broken Idylls : Audisio, Camus, And Roblès -- Kateb Yacine And The Ruins Of The Present -- Mohammed In The Métro: Remembering 17 October 1961 And The Novels Of Rachid Boudjedra -- Conclusion. Seth Graebner. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 325-339) And Index.