A Postcolonial Analysis of Terrorism Rationalization in Yasmina Khadra’s The Attack

Abstract

Employing the postcolonial paradigm, this paper explores the conduct of violence in a colonial condition and seeks to determine its rationality in The Attack. In colonial states, violence plays a critical role both in the furtherance and perpetuation of colonialism and the resistance of the same. Both the colonizer and the colonized assume some form of legitimacy in their violent acts. In an effort to delegitimize the resistance effort of the colonized, the colonizer often attempts to define and label the oppressed as terrorists griped in unjustified acts of violence. Through a qualitative research design, this study probes how the colonized attempt to rationalize their violence by resisting the cloak of a terrorist therefore assuming the pose of a resistance and freedom fighter. The paper argues that the dispossessed justify their violence as a path towards redemption from the oppressed condition of colonization.