Representation as Memory: Literary Justice in Postcolonial Algeria and France

France and Algeria share a history of violence dating from France's invasion in 1830 through Algerian Independence in 1962, and continuing in some forms until today. There has recently been a number of works, primarily memoirs, describing the violence and torture used during the independence war. Not coincidentally, these works coincide with attempts to force the French state to atone, whether through apology or restitution, for its actions as a colonial power. Algerian writer Assia Djebar takes up this violence in many of her works, noting connections between colonial and post-colonial violence, particularly where it concerns women. While many of the calls for apologies from France insist on Algeria's role as victim, Djebar's work recalls the role of Algerians as perpetrators during the war, and more particularly, after the war once the French had been expelled. Among the works recalling the not-so-distant violent past, Djebar's deserves particular attention, since her international standing and her visibility in the world of French letters guarantee a large readership. She has always published in France, even when she was living and working in Algeria, and her works have been widely translated. Last year she was elected to the Academie Française, the first North African to become a member of this elite body. This paper will explore how Djebar's fiction and other more autobiographical texts are contributing to, or even intiating, the discussions between France and Algeria about their shared history, especially a shared history of conflict and violations of fundamental human rights