Ali Dilem: Artivisme algérien et mémoire comique

Abstract

This article analyses Algerian cartoonist Ali Dilem’s drawings from the first years of the décennie noire and contrasts them with his productions from the early months of 2019, when the Algerian demonstrators of the hirak ousted President Bouteflika. Dilem’s career – spanning over 30 years – has made him a staple of Algerian and European news, whether in newspapers or on TV. Both popular and prolific, Dilem produces cartoons that illustrate what I call ‘comic memory’, a recording and remembering of the past through humour. A diachronic analysis of this large corpus of drawings sheds light on the social and subversive potentials of humour, but most importantly allows for a discussion of its mechanisms over time. Through a careful reading of Dilem’s sardonic cartoons and their contexts of production, I show his work offers both a comic outlet unifying readers in a community of laughter, and a stern cultural commentary on how Algerians consider their history. In particular this article addresses two central motifs of Dilem’s work, on the one hand Algerians’ relationship to France, on the other hand the political pressures exerted on journalistic work in Algeria. Through themes such as censorship, racism and subversion, I explain how humour is a valuable source for memory studies. In fact, Dilem’s work participates in creating a comic archive that keeps track of the mentalités and sheds light on media politics, aesthetics and the poetics of humour.