Images of the Algerian War
Subtitle: French fiction and film, 1954-1992
By: Philip Dine.
Publisher: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Oxford [England]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 267
Subjects: French fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism.; War stories, French -- History and criticism.; Motion pictures -- France -- History.; Algeria -- History -- Revolution, 1954-1962 -- Literature and the revolution.; Algeria -- History -- Revolution, 1954-1962 -- Motion pictures and the revolution.
Description: This is the first full-length survey in any language of the fiction and film generated in France by the Algerian war (1954 - 1962).

Although part of a much wider process of decolonization, the conflict was so traumatic decolonization, the conflict was so traumatic that it brought France to the verge of civil war. Its memory continues to haunt French society today. Like America's experience in Vietnam, it has been understood as a paradigm of the collapse of Western certainties in the post-war period.

Philip Dine's ground-breaking study examines the novels and films which deal with the war in an attempt to understand the lasting impact of the conflict. By locating texts within institutional and public discourses, it addresses issues of historical agency and ideological dissemination and casts light on the mechanics of literary mystification. Among the writers discussed are Camus, Etcherelli, Millecam, Peree, Cesbron, Clavel, Ikor, Larteguy, Saint-Laurent, and Jules Roy, and the book also explores the films of directors including Godard, Schoendoerffer, Resnais, Tavernier, and Pontecorvo.

All quotations in French are accompanied by English translations. Innovative and accessible, Images of the Algerian War will interest all teachers and students of the culture and politics of modern France, together with all those concerned with issues of decolonization.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [238]-257) and index.