Waciny Laredj and the Passion for Writing

The Algerian novel written in Arabic got off to a shaky start, with the search for identity faltering in the shadow of colonial oppression. In this regard, Rida Houhou’s text ‘Ghada Umm Al-Qura’, which paved the way for subsequent fictional writing, raised several issues relating, firstly, to the novel genre and, secondly, to the Arabic language’s capacity to enter the world of fiction. This text remains a subject of debate amongst various Algerian critical schools, which is evidence of the vitality of the Algerian novelistic and critical fields...