Decolonizing Emotions in French Algeria

Anti-colonial Mythmaking and Morality Tales, 1954-1962

Decolonizing Emotions in French Algeria cover

Decolonizing Emotions in French Algeria

Anti-colonial Mythmaking and Morality Tales, 1954-1962

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Description

Alongside the diplomatic struggles of the early Cold War, European politicians worked to shape emotions about the postwar order-advocating fear of communism and hope for postwar recovery. In this context, the French Empire in North Africa emerged as one important emotional battleground, where Algerian nationalists and anti-colonial campaigners challenged French narratives about imperial pride and native hysteria.

During the Algerian War (1954–1962), emotions thus became a pivotal part of the independence struggle. Accordingly, Decolonizing Emotions tracks affective politics during the revolution, focusing on members of the Front de libération nationale (FLN), Combattants de la libération (CDL), and Jeune Résistance. Delving into the manifestos, poetry, and personal diaries of anti-colonial activists, the book reveals a rich world of transgressive sentiments, emotional exile, and affective border-crossings.

The stories that surface show how Algerians used biopower to combat an affective regime that refused native populations the right to be angry. The book further chronicles how Europeans complicated ideas of humanitarian pity and confronted the French production of political apathy. It is a history that holds modern relevance, speaking to contemporary debates over race relations and national pride, the pathologizing of Muslim emotions, and the contested process of how myths die (demythologization).

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Acknowledgements

Introduction:
On Self-Immolation and Emotional Decolonization

Chapter 1
The Encircled Corpse
Death, Intimacy, & the Making of the Algerian Revolution
Chapter 2
The Lowly Toad, the Foolish French, and the Moral Maquisard: Algerian Morality Tales
Chapter 3
Blood on Fire: Revolutionary Dignity and the Emotional War
for Algerian Decolonization
Chapter 4
Profile of a “Pain-in-the-Ass Militant”: Personality Traits, Emotions, and the French Border-Crossing
Chapter 5
The Corpse Dressed in Lace: Constructing a Community of Revolt
Chapter 6
On Trial with Antigone and Christ Crucified: French Suitcase-Carriers against the Colonial Myth

Conclusion: The Activist Immolated

Bibliography

Product details

Published Sep 19 2024
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 280
ISBN 9780755652891
Imprint I.B. Tauris
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Christiane-Marie Abu Sarah

Christiane-Marie Abu Sarah is Assistant Professor…

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