Déjà lu ?: On Rachid Boudjedra's Recurring Jewish-Muslim Figure

Abstract

Abstract: This article examines the recurring figure of Henriette Gozlan, a Jewish-Muslim seamstress who (re)appears in multiple novels by Algerian author Rachid Boudjedra. Through a close reading of the particularities of Henriette's relationship to and place in the protagonist's family in La répudiation (1969), La macération (1984), and La dépossession (2017), I demonstrate how Boudjedra's œuvre challenges both colonial-era French discourse that sought to divide Algerian Jews and Muslims into distinct ethno-racial and political groups, and the postcolonial Algerian national narrative that ironically relied upon these artificial productions to construct a national religious and cultural identity.