The Self and the Other in Prose Narratives: The Algerian Novel between the Controvers of Acceptance and Rejection

Abstract

The article deals with the reality of the other in the Algerian prose narratives through two literary works; the first one was Tahar Outtar’s novel, Al-Laz (The Ace) whose narrative addresses the Other. The novel unveils the behaviors of the colonized “Other” through several characters like the French gay officer, or like his soldiers whose reactions show savagery towards the Algerian society. The second literary work, a novel written by a contemporary Algerian author Amin Zaoui

, is entitled: The Queen. Its discourse carries paradoxes between two contradictory emotions which are love and hatred at the same time. The resulting potion  shape the events and create the image of the Other that ranges between the emotions of admiration, love, and even hatred. The writer, therefore, draws an image of the fictional characters and how it does not settle on one emotion. This article monitors the emotions spread between the pages of the Algerian prose narratives represented in both novels, Taher Outtar’s Al-Laz (The Ace) and Amin Zaoui’s The Narration Queen.