Narrating the intimate:development of queer representations in Algerian Arabophone and Francophone literature

Ben Ali Amer, Chabha (2019) Narrating the intimate:development of queer representations in Algerian Arabophone and Francophone literature. In: Queer Studies, Postgraduate Conference. UNSPECIFIED. (Unpublished)

Abstract

This paper discusses the emerging newness located in contemporary Algerian literature, and compares 4 works of 4 different Algerian writers demonstrating the generational gap and the shifting representation of homosexuality. In doing so, I am going to compare and therefore detect the change in the works of Rachid Boudjedra, Tahar Djaout, Anouar Rahmani, and Nina Bouraoui. This analysis focuses explicitly on same sex desire as a cultural border that transgresses the notion of nationhood, and signifies relations of power and social hierarchies. Moreover, it gives a sight to how different sexual orientations affect the process of writing. Unlike the previous literature produced during the decolonization period onward, known as postcolonial, the case of the recent Algerian literature is still pending between postcolonialism and literature in “mouvance”.