The Reparative in Narrative: Works of Mourning in Progress (review)

The question of France's colonial past and its memorialization in the present day remains one of the nation's most challenging issues. France is far from alone in its struggle to come to terms with the legacies of colonialism, but it has become notorious for its apparent reticence to do so. As this excellent book shows, however, the 'colonial fracture' cannot begin to be repaired without a full and open national conversation about the past of genocide and torture and its meanings in the present. Mireille Rosello taps into what has become a 'cacophonous ensemble of voices' (p. 3) working to reveal or suppress the memories of French colonialism, and particularly of the Algerian War. The originality of Rosello's approach lies in seeking to go beyond the 'disciplinary melancholy' (p. 3) created by the resurfacing of past unresolved traumas in the present. Searching for the 'reparative' in texts on French colonialism is presented here as a step beyond the recuperation and study of trauma. The reparative is also a movement away from the debates around 'repentance', the for-and-against arguments on contrition and atonement that for Rosello constitute a 'false dilemma' (p. 5). The reparative — a concept adapted from the work of Eve Sedgwick — promises to redefine the parameters of the memory debate by avoiding the 'rhetorical trap' (p. 6) of repentance, and proposes a 'working through' of memory rather than the constant argument and counter-argument that characterize the repentance debates. It is a process of recapturing and recovering memory without pretending to 'fix' the past or restore individuals or communities to a state of plenitude. Indeed, the narratives that Rosello analyses often give up on the idea that the past can be repaired, and accept that the 'harm is done'. These narratives are not confined to literary works, but extend to comedy, cinema, theatre, and legal discourse. The broad scope of Rosello's analyses is a further highly original aspect of the work, and together the four chapters constitute a particularly rich exploration of the reparative and its possible uses in diverse fields. The first chapter deals with the Algerian humorist Fellag, and focuses on issues of multilingualism and his use of language to disrupt power relations between 'native' French and their Maghrebian others. The second chapter turns to Nicolas Ehni's Algérie roman, and identifies in this novel, written from the perspective of the torturer, questions on the limits of forgiveness and reparation. Chapter 3 carries out a comparative analysis of the films Caché and Indigènes, and argues that the former offers more potential for collective memorial reparation. The final chapter reflects on the work of the lawyer Gisèle Hamini and her particular battles with colonial violence. While the book focuses on North Africa, its subtle and convincing arguments on history, testimony, and memory will have significant ramifications for similar debates relating to other areas of the post-colonial world. Engagingly written and brilliantly argued, this is a landmark work that will shape critical thinking on memory and colonialism in France and beyond.