internationales literaturfestival berlin

Rachid Boudjedra was born in Aïn-Beida, East Algeria, in 1941, and learned Arabic in Tunis since it was forbidden in his homeland. He took part in the Algerian war of independence, joining the Communist Party after the country had gained independence, and went on to study Mathematics and Philosophy in Algiers and at the Sorbonne in Paris. He has taught at various universities in the Arab world, Europe and the Americas since 1965. The denunciation of French colonialism is a central motif in Boudjedra's work, which in his début novel already turns towards a critique of his own society. »La Répudiation« (1969; t: The repudiation) tells the story of a young man's traumatic childhood. His mother was rejected by his father and he takes revenge by becoming the lover of his father's new, younger wife. Transcending individual destiny, the destruction of identity becomes emblematic of the whole of society. The impact of Boudjedra's language and his portrayal of sexuality in particular has led to much controversy, and the novel was banned in Algiers until 1980. Since the author had not yet reached the mandatory age of thirty for the Prix Goncourt, he was awarded the alternative »Prix des Enfants Terribles«, founded for this reason by Jean Cocteau. Since then Boudjedra has subjected himself again and again to criticism and hostility, with work shaped by the Nouveau Roman and the modern narrative techniques of world literature. With a special pathos of fury and despair, he depicts the persistently violent circumstances within the societies of Algeria and France alike. A torrential stream of words without structuring chapters brings together a fusion of vivid metaphors, snippets from myths, tales and intertextual references, coalescing planes of time and consciousness, and complex framed stories. Thus the novels become a forceful critique of all radical and violent ruling parties. In 1987 a fatwa against Boudjedra was declared, and ever since he cannot travel around his homeland without the protection of bodyguards. Five years later he offered a response to the murderous operations of the Islamic fundamentalist front FIS with the pamphlet »FIS de la haine« (1992; t: Principle Hate). In the novel »Timimoun« (1994) he contrasts the beauty of Algeria's desert landscape to the gruesome assassinations carried out by fundamentalists. »Reality is terrible«, Boudjedra expressed his sense for aversion in happy endings, and yet his latest novel »Les funérailles« (2003; t: The funerary feast) reaches a reconciliatory conclusion through marriage. The author, most of whose novels – some of which have been written in Arabic since 1981 – have been translated into German, has also written poetry, essays and ten scripts. He received the Golden Palm at the Cannes Festival for »Chronique des années de braise« (1975; Eng. »Chronicle of the Years of Embers«). His script »Ali au pays des mirages« (t: Ali in the land of mirages) was awarded the Tanit d'or at the Carthage Festival in 1980. Boudjedra divides his time »between Algiers, Paris and the rest of the world«.