Writing Wrongs The Representation of ‘Harkis ’ in

In Experimental nations, the literary critic Réda Bensmaïa argues that the relationship between literature and nationalism within the Algerian context has changed signifi cantly since the end of War of Independence. In the 1950s this relationship was creative, writers “had a real sense of participating in an effort of nation building”.1 However, as Bensmaïa observes, in the postcolonial period, literature has become less concerned with the construction of a particular national image and more involved in criticizing the one that exists as the government has increasingly been charged with corruption and a betrayal of the principles of the revolution.2 The Algerian writer Rachid Boudjedra echoes Bensmaïa’s interpretation, noting that Algerian literature is a “littérature politique dans le sens subversif du terme; c’est-à-dire une littérature de subvertissement, du renverse-ment”.3 Rather than writing a narrative of the national ideal, writers now strive to create a narrative of the real that reveals the fi ctitiou