The Year of Passages

The Year of Passages

Réda Bensmaïa
Translated and with an afterword by Tom Conley

$24.00 Paper
ISBN: 0-8166-2392-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-2393-8

"Bensmaïa's writing gives us a hilarious portrait of a figure shuttling between different continents, cultures, and idioms just after the collapse of French-Algerian relations in 1992." —from Tom Conley's afterword

Straddling the boundary between fiction and nonfiction, this rich and unconventional novel provokes thought at the turn of every page. It is a tale of exile and passage, a tale that moves in multiple directions, full of gusto and rollicking irony.

The tale is narrated by a North African author who is now living in the United States because he has been condemned by religious fanatics after the publication of his novel entitled Dead Letters. He is disillusioned with literature, and his life events are beyond his control. He can only write, and he fabricates material from trends imposed on him by the American academy.

Bensmaïa's knowledge of the history, the literature, and the philosophical ideas of our times underlies the novel without intruding into it directly. He offers, among other things, an important reflection on U.S. political culture, touching on issues ranging from foreign policy in the Middle East to the media's role in alternately demonizing Muslim cultures and fostering ignorance of them. In The Year of Passages, Bensmaïa has created a vibrant work that defies classification and promises to be a major event that compels the rethinking of the Western literary tradition.

"The Year of Passages forms an important contribution to the rich and growing body of the literature of exile. In addition to tackling new themes and discussing new situations, it takes language and literature to a new level of interaction. It is a valuable addition to the body of Maghribi literature as well." —Journal of the American Association of Teachers of Arabic

Réda Bensmaïa, who was raised in Algeria, has published numerous articles on Francophone and film theory. He is currently professor of French and comparative literature at Brown University. He is the author of The Barthes Effect: The Essay as Reflective Text (1987) and the editor of Gilles Deleuze (1989).

Tom Conley is professor of French and Italian at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of The Self-Made Map(1996) and Film Hieroglyphs (1991), co-editor of Identity Papers (1996), and has translated a number of books, including Gilles Deleuze's The Fold (1993).

224 pages | 7 x 10 | 1995
Theory Out of Bounds Series, volume 5

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The Year of Passages Réda Bensmaïa Translated and with an afterword by Tom Conley		$24.00 Paper ISBN: 0-8166-2392-9 ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-2393-8
"Bensmaïa's writing gives us a hilarious portrait of a figure shuttling between different continents, cultures, and idioms just after the collapse of French-Algerian relations in 1992." —from Tom Conley's afterword Straddling the boundary between fiction and nonfiction, this rich and unconventional novel provokes thought at the turn of every page. It is a tale of exile and passage, a tale that moves in multiple directions, full of gusto and rollicking irony. The tale is narrated by a North African author who is now living in the United States because he has been condemned by religious fanatics after the publication of his novel entitled Dead Letters. He is disillusioned with literature, and his life events are beyond his control. He can only write, and he fabricates material from trends imposed on him by the American academy. Bensmaïa's knowledge of the history, the literature, and the philosophical ideas of our times underlies the novel without intruding into it directly. He offers, among other things, an important reflection on U.S. political culture, touching on issues ranging from foreign policy in the Middle East to the media's role in alternately demonizing Muslim cultures and fostering ignorance of them. In The Year of Passages, Bensmaïa has created a vibrant work that defies classification and promises to be a major event that compels the rethinking of the Western literary tradition. "The Year of Passages forms an important contribution to the rich and growing body of the literature of exile. In addition to tackling new themes and discussing new situations, it takes language and literature to a new level of interaction. It is a valuable addition to the body of Maghribi literature as well." —Journal of the American Association of Teachers of Arabic Réda Bensmaïa, who was raised in Algeria, has published numerous articles on Francophone and film theory. He is currently professor of French and comparative literature at Brown University. He is the author of The Barthes Effect: The Essay as Reflective Text (1987) and the editor of Gilles Deleuze (1989). Tom Conley is professor of French and Italian at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of The Self-Made Map(1996) and Film Hieroglyphs (1991), co-editor of Identity Papers (1996), and has translated a number of books, including Gilles Deleuze's The Fold (1993). 224 pages \| 7 x 10 \| 1995 Theory Out of Bounds Series, volume 5