French Orientalist Literature in Algeria, 18451882: Colonial Hauntings

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Description

This book applies the growing theoretical field of hauntology to a body of literature which has previously been examined through the lenses of Orientalism and exoticism. Through a chronological study and close readings of the writings of Thophile Gautier, Eugne Fromentin, Gustave Flaubert, and Pierre Loti, the project identifies haunting echoes within the texts which demonstrate an ambivalence of attitudes towards colonialism and which undermine any claim towards a monolithic imperialist French ideology. Whereas hauntological theory has be used to illuminate literature from the Francophone post-colonial period, it has not yet been applied to texts produced during the French colonial period. The originality of this project thus lies in the application of Derridean hauntological theory to works from an earlier period, each of which in one way or another addresses the theme of colonial violence. By revisiting four classic works of colonial Orientalism with haunting as a principal theme, this analysis provides a critical witnessing of Frances violent colonization of Algeria that demonstrates Frances latent anxieties about the colonial project at the time.

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Attentive to the disturbing historical traces of colonial Algeria found in French Orientalist texts, Sage Goellner makes a compelling case for a re-evaluation of these nineteenth-century narratives and their testimony to the haunting violence and trauma of French colonialism. She demonstrates skillfully how these works continue to haunt our contemporary landscape and inform the memories and relations between France and Algeria. -- Michael O'Riley, The Colorado College

Author Bio

Sage Goellner is assistant professor of French at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.