Représentations de la guerre d'indépendance algérienne ed. by Maya Boutaghou (review)

This edited volume proposes an overview of representations of the Algerian war of independence through the analysis of French and Algerian novels, plays, poetry, documentary and feature films, and web-based narratives written in French. The strong point of this collection of essays is undeniably its focus on works published in the 2000s (with the exception of Martine Créac'h's chapter on the poetry of Frank Venaille, which also uses older works to contextualize the poet's 2004 book). This sets this volume apart from existing publications on representations of the Algerian war, which largely focus on artistic production from the 1940s until the end of the twentieth century (Camus, Cixous, Djaout, Djebar, Feraoun, Mammeri, Sénac, Kateb). From a critical perspective, this focus on later works also brings in discussions of works that are critical both of the silence imposed in France and of the state narrative imposed by the FLN after Algeria's independence (the chapters by Grandi, Kühn, Treacy, and Kosniowski illustrate these issues particularly well). The inclusion of theater, poetry, and online narratives makes for a well-rounded discussion of representations across media, beyond novels and films. The book is structured in three subsections: "Enjeux et mémoire," "Le cadrage et la fabrique de la mémoire," and "Les nœuds de mémoire." Although all the articles compiled in this edited volume are excellent, the breakdown in subparts is sometimes counterintuitive. For example, Brand's "A Tangled Web: Commemorating 17 October, 1961 in the Age of the Internet" would have fit better in the second part alongside Brozgal's and Koide's articles on the same event, and with related theoretical enquiries. This would also have helped each author offer a more focused introduction, clarifying how their article related to its subpart of the book, rather than repeating elements already presented in Boutaghou's clear and informative introduction. Overall, this publication does an excellent job at covering new classics of literature on the Algerian war (Bertina, Jenni, Guenassia, Ferrari, Lépront, Mauvignier) while not forgetting other genres (Brand's article on online platforms should prove very useful both to scholars wanting to engage with digital narratives and as an assigned course reading to encourage students to reflect on the nature of literature and testimony, and on their engagement as readers). Mentioning the focus on more recent works in the title of the book would have helped to showcase this book's worth to scholars who already own anthologies that focus on earlier works, as this volume is a must-read for those interested in more recent representations of the Algerian war of independence.