Azouz Begag: Questions of Home in a French Writer of Algerian Descent

This chapter looks at Azouz Begag, one of the earliest successful French novelists of Algerian descent. It discusses his portrayals of transcultural experience, as an “Arab” boy in France and in his recent fictional reflections on contemporary events in Algeria, including the 2019 Hirak uprising. The works analysed are Le Gone du Chaâba (1986), Salam Ouesssant (2012), and L’Arbre ou la maison (2021). All foreground questions of transcultural experience in youth in different ways. The discussion starts by detailing France’s relationship with Algeria in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, in the context of the repealed article of the 2005 law promoting the positive effects of colonisation, the 2021 Stora report (Le Rapport Stora), and the sixtieth anniversary of Algerian independence in 2022. It then looks at Begag’s overall literary production and his sociological and political work, highlighting his creative approach to language, and his self-mocking and politically charged humour. The myth of return is discussed in relation to Maghrebi immigrants during France’s post-1945 economic boom (Les Trente Glorieuses) and the effect of this myth on their offspring, including Begag himself. Parental self-sacrifice and Begag’s homage to the parent generation are explored. Questions of nostalgia and melancholy are discussed, as well as his characters’ approach to home and roots.