For decades the superimposition of languages in Algeria has had growing cultural and political consequences. The relations between identity and language, already complicated before independence, became all the more entangled after 1962 when the new state imposed standard Arabic as the sole national language. The vernacular brand of Arabic spoken by the majority of the population—as well as Berber, spoken by an important minority—were denied legitimacy. Moreover, French, the colonial language, continued to be important all the while that its position changed. The violence that ensued in the late 1980s cannot be fully understood without considering the politics of language. This timely book is devoted to Algeria’s linguistic predicament and the underlying disagreements over notions of identity, power, and belonging.
What problems arise when a new national language is adopted by a postcolonial state? How does the status of the former colonial language change? What becomes of the original “mother tongue(s)” of the populace? The authors of Algeria in Others’ Languages address these questions as they explore the historical, cultural, and philosophical significance of language in Algeria, and its relation to issues of politics and gender. Their topics range from analyses of political violence to the status of the principal of evidence in the legal system to the place of “Francophonie” in the 1990s.
The authors represent the fields of literature, history, sociology, sociolinguistics, and postcolonial and gender studies; some are also historical players in Algeria’s linguistic debates.
Contributors
Anne-Emmanuelle Berger, Cornell University
Réda Bensmaia, Brown University
Omar Carlier, University of Paris I, Sorbonne
Hélène Cixous
Hafid Gafaïti, Texas Tech University
Ranjana Khanna, Duke University
Abdelkebir Khatibi
Djamila Saadi-Mokrane, University of Lille 3
Lucette Valensi, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris) and Institut d'Etudes de l'Islam et des Sociétés du Monde Musulman
Reviews
"Berger includes an introduction that provides useful historical and political contextualization for the literary critical analyses - all written between 1996 and 2000 at the height of the confrontation between Islamists and secularists - and their philosophical approaches to the specific case of Algeria. . . . Recommended for college and university libraries serving upper-division undergraduates and above."--Choice, September 2002, Vol. 40, No. 1
"Algeria in Others' Languages tells in turn, and collectively, of an erstwhile Algerian history of indigenous conflict and colonial violence and the individual critical visions and languages of another "once-upon-a-time" that is still to come." -- Barbara Harlow, Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2002
"Taken as a whole, Berger's Algeria in Others' Languages offers a cogent, well organized group of essays that analyze the most persistent problems inherent in contemporary Algeria." --Valerie Orlando, HPROB, Vol. 1, Issue 3, 2002
"Even a seasoned reader of the Algerian scene, its literature, history, and politics, can learn a great deal from this book. . . . In 'The Names of Oran,' Helene Cixous skillfully and creatively brings the reader into the psyche of those living in the multilingual environment of Algeria through a recounting of her experiences growing up in Oran and Algiers. . . . Cixous's essay is a gentle ending to an anthology that describes much of the searing pain and suffering of Algerians in the last fifteen years. Perhaps it is an expression of some hope for resolution and peace, given the creative possibilities of multicultural and multilingual Algeria."—Melissa Marcus, Northern Arizona University, H-Net Reviews, August 2003
"Readers interested in exploring the issues of language, gender, and contemporary politics in Algeria will find much that is new in these essays, and will appreciate the diverse views expressed by their authors. An extensive bibliography adds an invaluable research tool for scholars in many fields of study on Algeria."—Susan Tarrow, Cornell University, Modern and Contemporary France 12:2, 2004
"The essays reveal that the debate over the linguistic situation in Algeria is neither over nor solved, and is still capable of provoking the same passion and controversies half a century after the country's independence, almost as much as it did in the early years of independence. Readers interested in issues of identity and multilingual situations would find Algeria in Others' Languages a very valuable reference."—Aida A. Bamia, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, 23:1-2, 2003
"Most of the essays in this collection deal with the politics of language in Algeria. Describing the history of Algeria's society and languages and their sometimes very personal experiences with these languages, most of the authors try to show specific connections between the violence in Algeria and linguistic issues. . . . The collection is very helpful in painting an authentic picture of the actual political and social situation of Algeria and important aspects of the development of a country with a long colonial history and a short national one, as well as a complex language situation and a divided concept of society, Arabic-Islamic versus French-Western."—Fadila Brahimi, University of Bayreuth, Anthropological Linguistics 42:2
"Algeria in Others' Languages is a timely collection that explores the incredibly complex and vexing issues of language, politics, and gender in one of the most problematic postcolonial spaces. The overall analytical picture is complemented by the presence of internationally famous authors whose pieces add a concise and poetic note to the melody."—Mireille Rosello, Northwestern University
"In speaking about the intractable complexities of Algerian speech, this collection of essays reaches beyond the historical singularity of Algeria to address the linguistic predicaments of many other postcolonial societies. Each writer raises, in his or her own way, the questions of translation and its recurring failures; the terror but also occasional pleasures of untranslatability; and the fate of the mother tongue set upon by colonial and national languages. By rendering a 'linguistic portrait of Algeria,' this volume grants readers everywhere with ways to understand the violence and love inspired by nationalism's elsewhere. A remarkable book, its importance is already upon us."—Vicente L. Rafael, Professor, University of California at San Diego, author of Contracting Colonialism: Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalong Society under Early Spanish Rule and White Love and Other Events in Filipino History
"As transnational language politics increasingly come to be recognized as crucial to the study of post-independence cultural formations in the wake of colonial wars, a book such as Algeria in Others' Languages is both timely and historically significant. Lucid, eloquent, and charged with political urgency, this collection is the first of its kind in English devoted to Algeria's predicament as a society riven by the conflicting claims of secular and Islamist traditions."—Emily Apter, University of California , Los Angeles
