Albert memmi, Ecrivain de la Déchirure by Guy Dugas (review)

L ’E sprit C réateur As he deciphers images of the text within figures of the city, the streets—the mysterious signposts of words appearing strewn across Dib’s landscape—a complex code for reality and for art is uncovered: the secret script becomes the means to overcoming the limits imposed by death on the writer. This magical script—¡’écriture talismanique—gives cogency to the signs, to life, and to the author’s work itself. Naget Khadda next gives an effective overview of Dib’s work. At each stage the place of Dib’s work vis-à-vis its historical moment, and its place in the evolution of Maghrebian literature, is considered, along with more sophisticated considerations of political aspects in literature, the relationship of ideology to literature, and especially of the meaning of Dib’s evolving commitments in philosophical and formal terms. Two last essays on francophonie Maghrebian literature deal with contemporary issues, though taking more familiar, conventional critical lines. Bonn’s essay on L ’Insolation takes as its thesis the argument that Algerian literature is now establishing its own base, its own point of reference in itself. To prove his point he shows, with meticulous scholarship, the “intertextuality” established between L ’Insolation and its predecessors, including most notably Nedjma and Le Polygone étoilé. Alaoui Abdallaoui’s brief, unoriginal overview of Moroccan francophonie literature belongs to the previous generation of literary criticism. The same applies to Guellouz who sums up the situation of Arabic literature in Tunisia, treating such major figures of the colonial period as Douagi, Chabbi, and Messadi, primarily utilizing a political and thematic perspective. He takes into consideration post-independent developments, giving a brief overview of the political events which transpired in the process of decolonization. Similarly, Aida Bamya’s study on Wattar focuses on various themes or plots, emphasizing the dimension of social criticism. Both of these essays on Arabic literature are slight. Two of the last studies on oral literature were still more disappointing. Galley’s “Note” on the Hilal epic is little more than a general statement on its importance, treating the sub­ ject as cursorily as a preface; Saada discusses the role of women in the epic much too super­ ficially—the only merit of her essay lies in the translated passages of the epic which are made available to the reader. In contrast, Galand-Pernet’s work on the theme of wandering in traditional Berber poetry gives an excellent insight into Chleuh poetry and its relation­ ship to Khair-Eddhine’s Corps négatif. Limiting itself to the thematic influences, the study shows the sources, and attacks the issue of transmission and transmutation of tradition into experimental fiction. Thus the entire volume in itself constitutes a heterogeneous mixture of critical approaches of the past and the present—a reflection of the literature itself. The Algerian schools—critical and literary—continue to dominate; the Arabic works are still given marginal status and treatment (here we might have appreciated some more extensive over­ views of Algerian and Moroccan Arabic works); the tendencies of the 60’s still continue; and the great innovators are still shown to be pursuing the hard and fruitful paths of literary revolution, of post-Independence deconstruction, and of creative “ reterritorialization .” K e n n e th W. H a r r o w Michigan State University Guy Dugas. A l b e r t M em m i, E c r iv a in d e l a d é c h i r u r e . Sherbrooke, Québec: Editions Naaman, 1984. Pp. 172. $12.00. This, the first book-length study of Tunisian-born Albert Memmi and his work, is part of the series “Auteurs de langue française” edited by Antoine Naaman. Most titles in the series, of which five have appeared, have related the writer to his or her nation— 96 Spring 1986 Book R eviews Mohammed Dib, écrivain algérien; Assia Djebar, romancière algérienne, etc. The problem immediately arises of how to place Memmi and his work, and Dugas has taken the position that Memmi’s homeland is that of separatedness, tornness, exile. Guy Dugas’62-page introductory essay actually places Memmi’s...