Remembering French Algeria: Pieds-Noirs, Identity, and Exile by Amy L. Hubbell (review)

Reviews 245 à la différence (216). La Commission Bouchard-Taylor, dont les travaux et recommandations au gouvernement québécois constituent l’armature analytique de cet ouvrage, n’est pas néanmoins dépourvue de toute qualité. Car la promotion de la laïcité, de l’interculturalisme pour mieux faciliter l’intégration des différentes communautés migrantes et les protéger contre toute forme de discrimination relève bien des vertus démocratiques des sociétés modernes.Ce que les auteurs ici reprochent aux commissaires, c’est le caractère vicié et prétentieux de leur démarche qui, non seulement omet de souligner des pratiques interculturelles au Québec vieilles de plus d’un demi-siècle que celle initiée par l’État québécois, mais aussi exacerbent, certes involontairement, la dichotomie entre les Québécois de souche et les nouveaux Québécois. Sarah Lawrence College (NY) Claudy Delné Hubbell, Amy L. Remembering French Algeria: Pieds-Noirs, Identity, and Exile. Lincoln: UP of Nebraska, 2015. ISBN 978-0-80326490-8. Pp. 296. $55. The exodus of nearly one million French Algerians to France around the time of Algeria’s independence had major and understudied cultural, social, and political consequences for both Algeria and France. Hubbell’s book engages the literature that stems from this traumatic event. The flight from Algeria gave form to an exilic community of diverse social and geographic origins known as the Pieds-Noirs. Hubbell explores two notions at the heart of pied-noir literature: loss and memory. Repetition and return are the two tropes or symptoms associated with the loss of Algeria, whatever Algeria might mean for the different authors discussed here and so, appropriately, Hubbell uses a psychoanalytical framework to analyze these same symptoms. Chapter 7 examines the loss of Algeria through the metaphor of the phantom limb. Reading the texts through this rich metaphor (along with that of amputation and prosthetics) captures the complexities and contradictions of what Algeria means to pied-noir writers. In other chapters Hubbell explores the ideas of return, remembering, and repetition, which are, at times, a bit repetitive. While repetition is construed as a symptom of the loss for pied-noir writers, one might also argue that all works of art are based on repetition, whereby the artist/writer engages in repetition in a renewed attempt to capture or express perfection. It would have been interesting to know how pied-noir writing differs or conforms to this general rule. Like repetition, the notion of exile is a common trope associated with human condition. There is a vast scholarly literature on the subject including studies by Freud and even closer to the topic here, Edward Said. Curiously, there is no discussion on the notion of exile as such in the book despite the title. This oversight is curious because one would think that exile as a general theme would resonate with the pied-noir experience and exploring it could shed more light on the questions discussed in the book along with the idea of home. Exile, as a theme and emotion, is the basis of some of the most beautiful and significant texts of world literature; pied-noir literature is not an exception here. The strength of the bond/attachment to Algeria, felt and expressed by the pieds-noirs (like that of the Harkis and so many other Algerian exiles), that of their pain and suffering, and the beautiful pages that have result from that experience, remain, alas, unexamined. One can acknowledge the beauty of the prose and explore, say, Cardinal’s complex attachment to the land while at the same time be critical of her sense of ownership. In the end, Hubbell’s book tackles a challenging topic and does a great job framing and analyzing the pied-noir experience from a mostly psychoanalytic perspective. The stimulating sections where figures such as Derrida and Cixous are examined in their relationship to Algeria, remind us of the much-needed studies of the pied-noir experience and its related literature that remain to be produced. Claremont McKenna College (CA) Fazia Aïtel Jordan, Mark D. Convulsing Bodies: Religion and Resistance in Foucault. Stanford...