Login/Register

AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume 6, Number2.  May 2022                              Pp.196-208

Algerian Children’s Literature: From the Labyrinth of Colonialism to the Cornucopia of Postcolonialism

Amina AISSA ASSIA

Department of English
Faculty of Letters and Languages
University of Relizane, Algeria
Corresponding Author:

Abstract:

Non-Western children’s literature has received significant attention in the past few decades. African and Arab children’s literature is not the exception to this surge in interest. However, the countries and communities denominated as African or Arab encompass heterogeneous communities and ethnicities. African children’s literature often refers to literature in Central and Southern African countries, and Arab children’s literature is often Middle-eastern, leaving the genre underexplored in many countries part of both. This article is a precursory sketch of children’s and young adult literature in Algeria, tackling the question of the idiosyncrasies of the genre from a cultural-historical perspective. It exposes the substantial historical and linguistic factors that denied the genre of an organic metamorphosis. With 130 years of French colonization, intensive acculturation policies, and the astounding illiteracy rate among Algerians, the post-colonial Algerian government devoted efforts to tending to the wounds and the trauma deeply inflected by the French. The endeavor to restore the Algerian identity made children’s literature its first and most indispensable outlet of the process, similar to how it served as a resistance front during the colonial period. The article concludes by addressing the place of Algerian children’s literature on the international scale, the meager yet increasing scholarship interested in this research area, and recommendations for an open, ideology-free conversation between all parties involved in children’s literature production, circulation, and consumption to yield an auspicious trajectory for the future of the genre. Thus, the paper conduces to scholarship on African and Arab children’s literature.

Cite as:

AISSA ASSIA, A.  (2022).Algerian Children’s Literature: From the Labyrinth of Colonialism to the Cornucopia of Postcolonialism. Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 6 (2) 196-208.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol6no2.15

References:

100 Books for Children and Young People in Arabic. (2020). Available at

http://www.ibbyireland.com/blog/100-books-for-children-and-young-people-in-arabic

Abdelhadi, M. (2006). Tarikh Adab El-atfal Fi El-jaza’ir [History of Children’s Literature in

Algeria]. Mjalat El-makhber [Laboratory Journal], (3), 297-313.

Abdulrazak, F. (1982). ARABIZATION IN ALGERIA. MELA Notes, 26, 22–43.

Available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/29785162

Abu-Nasr, J. (1996). The Arab World. In International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature (pp. 781-785).
Routledge.

Benrabah, M (2005). The Language Planning Situation in Algeria. In Current Issues in Language

Planning, 6(4), 379-502, DOI: 10.1080/14664208.2005.10807312

Benrabah, M. (2007). Language-in-Education Planning in Algeria: Historical Development

and Current Issues. Language Policy, 6(2), 225-252. doi:10.1007/s10993-007-9046-7

Benrabah, M. (2013) Language Conflict in Algeria: From Colonialism to Post-Independence.

Multilingual Matters.

Benrabah, M. (2014) Competition between four “world” languages in Algeria, Journal of

World Languages, 1(1)., 38-59, DOI: 10.1080/21698252.2014.893676

Bentaifour, N. (2013) L’édition de Jeunesse en Algérie: Réalité et perspectives. Synergies, 19,

147-156.

Bentaifour, N. (2016). Culture et Littérature D’enfance et de Jeunesse en Algérie.[Children’s and Young Adult’s
Culture and Literature in Algeria] مجلة الحوار

 الثقافي, 7. doi: 10.37140/1701-005-001-038

Bizri, H. (2015). The Children’s Literature of the Arab countries: The Question of

Language. Bookbird: A Journal Of International Children’s Literature53(2), 74-79. DOI: 10.1353/bkb.2015.0039

Bradford, C. (2008). Unsettling narratives, post-colonial readings of children’s literature. Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Bradford, C. (2011). The Case of Children’s Literature: Colonial or Anti-Colonial?. Global Studies

Of Childhood1(4), 271-279. https://doi.org/10.2304/gsch.2011.1.4.271

Bouchemal, M. (2009-2010). Adab El-atfal Fi El-jaza’ir Mustapha Muhamed El-ghamari

Namoudhejen. [Children’s literature in Algeria: A case study of the writings of Mustapha Muhamed El-ghamari]
(Unpublished Magister dissertation). Hadj Lakhdar Batna 1, Algeria.

Croisy, S. (2008). Algerian History, Algerian Literature, and Critical Theories: An

Interdisciplinary Perspective on Linguistic Trauma and Identity Reformation in Postcolonial Algeria.
Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, 10(1), 84-106. Available at http://www.jstor.org.sndl1.arn.dz/stable/41210007

Dourari, A. (2012). Politique linguistique en Algérie: entre le monolinguisme d’Etat et le

plurilinguisme de la société. Synergies Pays Germanophones5, 73-89.

Dünges, P. (2011). Arabic Children’s Literature Today: Determining Factors and

Tendencies. PMLA126(1), 170-181. DOI: 10.1632/pmla.2011.126.1.170

Elrabi, B. (2009). Adab El-atfal Fi El-jaza’ir, Bayna el Ibd’a Wa El-naqd [Children’s literature

in Algeria, Between Creativity and Criticism]. Majalt El-ouloum El-insaniya [Journal of Human Sciences], A(31), 209-228.

Emenyonu, E. N. (2002). Selection and Validation of Oral Materials for Children’s Literature:

Artistic Resources in Chinua Achebe’s “Fiction for Children.” Callaloo, 25(2), 584–596. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3300588

Gubar, M. (2011). On Not Defining Children’s Literature. PMLA, 126(1), 209-216. Available at www.jstor.org/stable/41414094

Hunt, P. (2000). Futures for Children’s Literature: Evolution or radical break?. Cambridge

Journal Of Education, 30(1), 111-119. DOI: 10.1080/03057640050005807

Khorana, M. (1998). Children’s Publishing in Africa: Can the Colonial Past Be Forgotten?.  In

Critical Perspectives on Post-colonial African Children’s and Young Adult Literature. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1–13.

Khouani, Z. (2008). Adab El-atfal Fi El-jaza’ir: Dirassat Achkalih wa Anmatih bayna El-

fus’ha wa El’amiya. [Children’s literature in Algeria: A study of form and genres, between standard Arabic and Algerian dialect] (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Abou Bekr Belkaid. Tlemcen, Algeria.

MacCann, D. (2001). Apartheid and Racism in South African Children’s Literature, 1985–1995. London: Routledge.

Mdallel, S. (2003). Translating Children’s Literature in the Arab World. Meta48(1-2), 298-

  1. DOI: 10.7202/006976ar

Nel, P. (2008). The Fall and Rise of Children’s Literature. American Art, 22(1), 23-27.

doi:10.1086/587914

MacLeod, A. (1983). Censorship and Children’s Literature. The Library Quarterly:

Information, Community, Policy, 53(1), 26-38. Available at www.jstor.org/stable/4307574

Osa, O.  (1995). African Children’s and Youth Literature. New York: Twayne Publishers.

Sharkey, H. J. (2012). Language and Conflict: The Political History of Arabisation in Sudan

and Algeria. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 12(3), 427-449. doi:10.1111/sena.12009

Taha Thomure, H., Kreidieh, S. & Baroudi, S. (2020). Arabic children’s literature: Glitzy

Production, disciplinary content. Issues in Educational Research, 30(1), 323-344. Available at
http://www.iier.org.au/iier30/taha-thomure.pdf

West, M. (2005). Censorship. In Encyclopedia of children’s literature (pp. 491-500). Routledge.

Wolf, S. (2014). Children’s Literature on The Digital Move. The Reading Teacher, 67(6),

413-417. Available at www.jstor.org/stable/24573553

Yenika-Agbaw, V. (2011). Representing Africa in children’s literature. Routledge.

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Tumblr
Reddit
Email
StumbleUpon
Digg

Amina Aissa Assia is an assistant teacher in the department of English at the University of Relizane, Algeria. She has a BA in Spanish (2010), an MA in French, Teaching French as a Foreign Language, Contextualization and Pedagogical Innovation (2016), and a Magister in English (2017). She is currently reading for her Ph.D. in Discourse Analysis and Literary Stylistics. Her research interests include cognitive poetics, literary discourse analysis, children’s and young adult literature, and stylistics.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7865-2995