The only up-to-date and comprehensive text and reader of Algerian literature available in
English Algerian Literature: A Reader¿s Guide and Anthology offers the reader a historical and
critical overview of the literature from the early twentieth century to the present introduces
Algerian authors and provides selections from a wide range of their writings many translated
here for the first time. It begins with an overview chapter that charts the evolution of
Algerian literature and puts it in its proper historical context followed by five thematic
chapters: decolonization and cultural affirmation the War of Independence modernization and
its discontents emigration and history. The chapters begin with introductions on the themes
under discussion and the selections are preceded by biographies of the authors as well as
detailed summaries of the larger works from which they are extracted. Finally each chapter
concludes with a bibliography and sources for readers seeking additional information and
insight. The selections included in Algerian Literature: A Reader¿s Guide and Anthology have
been carefully chosen to reflect the richness and diversity of Algerian literature. Accordingly
they are extracted from various literary genres: novels plays and poems. Furthermore they
are from works that belong to different literary movements: realism modernism and
postmodernism. The variety and the outstanding quality of the selections along with the superb
introductions summaries and biographies make Algerian Literature: A Reader¿s Guide and
Anthology an ideal text for courses in Algerian Francophone and world literature courses. It
will also be of interest to general readers outside the classroom who want to broaden their
literary horizons.
