Weeks 8-9
Core Reading
Ferrari, J., Où j'ai laissé mon âme (Arles: Actes Sud, 2010) [please buy the Actes Sud 'Babel' edition at approx. €7]
Advance preparation for seminar discussion
Week 8
- Summarize the plot.
- Consider the role of the text's formal features, in particular the use of structural divisions and italicized parentheses (throughout and notably pp. 147-9).
- Consider and be ready to discuss the variability of narrative perspective and narrative voice.
- Identify key character traits of Degorce, Andreani and Tahar.*
- Discuss the relationship between Degorce and Andreani within and across its different phases.
- Examine and discuss the portrayal of the French army.
- How does the text situate the events it depicts in Algeria within a broader historical narrative of decolonization?
Week 9
- How effective a technique does the text suggest torture to be?
- What are the effects of having tortured on (a) Degorce and (b) Andreani? How does the text stage a comparison between the two in this regard?
- How do these two principal characters differ in the way they relate to family and friends?
- Discuss the thematization of language, truth and lying in the text.
- Consider the function(s) of religion and religious discourse in the text.
- How do you account for the title?
- Read Todorov's article and discuss in relation to key episodes or ideas from the text.*
(* indicates topic of student presentation)
Further Reading
- Alerini, P., 'Jérôme Ferrari, Où j'ai laissé mon âme', Essaim 29, 2 (2012): 177-181. Accessible through CAIRN via this link.
- Branche, R., La Torture et l'armée pendant la guerre d'Algérie (Paris: Gallimard, 2001). See here.
- Droz, B. & Lever, E., Histoire de la guerre d'Algérie (1954-1962) (Paris: Seuil, 1982). See here.
- Evans, M., Algeria: France's Undeclared War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012). See here.
- Lhote, F. 'La Guerre d'Algérie aujourd'hui, entre "temps commémoratif" et fiction: Où j'ai laissé mon âme (2010) de Jérôme Ferrari', French Studies Bulletin 36, 137 (2015): 83-86. See here.
- Stora, B., La Gangrène et l'oubli: la mémoire de la guerre d'Algérie (Paris: La Découverte, 1991). See here.
- Scarry, E., The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985). See here.
- Todorov, T., 'La torture dans la guerre d'Algérie', Le Débat 5, 122 (2002): 102-108. Accessible through CAIRN via this link.
- Trinquier, R., La Guerre moderne (Paris: Economica, 2008), in particular pp. 51-87. See here.
- Vidal-Naquet, P., La Torture dans la République (Paris: Minuit, 1972). See here.
- Villatoux, P. and M.-C., La République et son armée face au péril subversif : guerre et action psychologiques en France, 1945-1960 (Paris: Les Indes savantes, 2005), in particular pp. 493-528. See here.
Other material
Interview with Jérôme Ferrari by Olivier Barrot ('Un livre, un jour', 2010). To access click here.
Interview with Jérôme Ferrari by Jean-Étienne de Linares and Olivia Moulin (27 June 2011) available via this page.