The Reception and Perception of Algerian Literature in the Global Literary Context

Abstract

In an era of globalization, world literature constitutes massive hybrid literary goods from different cultures as literature per se represents its own people’s heritage and identity traits. It offers a great reservoir of major literary works that actively contribute to understanding the world which, in turn, is influenced by the way literature is read, classified and criticized. Relevantly, to understand a particular society, one must understand its literature as it is never devoid of cultural and societal reflections. The aim of this paper is to contextualize Algerian literature in today’s scene as the literary production in English continues to monopolize publishing houses. To draw a clear-cut line on how Algerian literature is discerned on a global scale, one ought to inspect the literary goods directed to the international readership and further examine how Algerian writers establish their form of representation as Algerians speak Arabic, Darja , French, and Tamazight . The paper tackles the Algerian novel in both French and Arabic while addressing their characteristics and scope in Algeria and France. Furthermore, the paper is concerned with defining the status of Algerian literature in world literature focusing on the obstacles Algerian writers come across on both a national and international level. The discussion in this paper extends to shed light on the shortcomings of literary translation in failing to promote Algerian literature or to preserve its cultural aspects.