Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Maps -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Local and the Global -- "Nek d Amazigh": From Kabyle and Berber to Amazigh -- On Terminology: Algerian, Amazigh, Arab, Berber, Indigène, Kabyle, Pied-Noir -- A Word about Berbers -- Overview of the Book -- 1. The Emergence of Berber Consciousness, 1930-1949 -- Singling out the Berbers: A Singular Project? -- The Berbers, the Algerianist Movement, and the École d'Alger -- Rehearsal for Dialogue: Algerian Fiction, between Imitation and Malaise -- The Emergence of Berber Consciousness and the Origin of the First Berber Writers -- 2. The First Berber Francophone Writers: The Dialectics of Identity -- Francophone Berber Writers: Starting the Dialogue -- Jean El Mouhoub Amrouche -- Marie-Louise Taos Amrouche -- Mouloud Feraoun -- Mouloud Mammeri -- Malek Ouary -- Conclusion -- 3. Of Berbers and Beurs, France and Algeria: The Struggle for Identity and Rights, 1970-1990 -- Paradoxes -- The Berber Movement in France and Algeria -- Arabization -- "One Only Arabizes What Is Not Arab": The Berber Academy and Beyond -- Two Influential Figures of the Berber Movement: Taos Amrouche and Mouloud Mammeri -- La chaîne 2 -- The New Kabyle Song and Other Cultural Forms -- The Berber Spring -- From Berber to Berber-Beur -- A Fertile Period, 1970 to 1980 -- Beurs' Unconscious Collective Memory -- Berber-Beur Literature -- Berber and Beur: Junction and Beyond -- 4. Rebels in Print and Song: Tahar Djaout, Matoub Lounès, and the Algerian Berber Movement at the End of the Twentieth Century -- Tahar Djaout: Out of the Berber Village -- Matoub Lounès: The Kabyle Rebel -- Djaout and Matoub: Secularism and Algerian History -- 5. Assia Djebar and the Mountain Language: The Return of the Repressed -- Algerian Berbers and Their Place.

The Road to Vaste est la prison -- Vaste est la prison: The Cumbersome Heritage, or a Genealogy of Rupture -- Reappropriation or Evacuation of Berber History? -- Conclusion -- Of Berber Denial -- Recent Development -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

To the world they are known as Berbers, but they prefer to call themselves Imazighen, or "free people." The claim to this unique cultural identity has been felt most acutely in Algeria in the Kabylia region, where an Amazigh consciousness gradually emerged after WWII. This is a valuable model for other Amazigh movements in North Africa, where the existence of an Amazigh language and culture is denied or dismissed in countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. By tracing the cultural production of the Kabyle people-their songs, oral traditions, and literature-from the early 1930s to the end of the twentieth century, Fazia Aïtel shows how they have defined their own culture over time, both within Algeria and in its diaspora. She analyzes the role of Amazigh identity in the works of novelists such as Mouloud Feraoun, Tahar Djaout, and Assia Djebar, and she investigates the intersection of Amazigh consciousness and the Beur movement in France. She also addresses the political and social role of the Kabyles in Algeria and in France, where after independence it was easier for the Berber community to express and organize itself. Ultimately, Aïtel argues that the Amazigh literary tradition is founded on dual priorities: the desire to foster a genuine dialogue while retaining a unique culture.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.