Reconstituting Cultural Memory through Image and Text in Leïla Sebbar's Le Chinois vert d'Afrique

Abstract

Despite the impact of the Algerian War on Franco-Algerian relations, the war's atrocities have all but vanished from French collective memory — until relatively recently. Legislative debates in the French National Assembly regarding the revision of textbooks attest to this: does France have the right to teach future generations about colonialism's positive effects? This article examines how Leïla Sebbar comes to terms with post-war trauma through a combination of text and image. Should one then read Sebbar's novel, Le Chinois vert d'Afrique, as a piece of ecphrastic writing? And more importantly, does Sebbar's use of photography function effectively as a vector of memorial transmission?