Affect, postmemory and gender in Nina Bouraoui’s Sauvage and Garçon manqué

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the affective and gendered transmission of ‘postmemory’ in Garçon manqué (2000) and Sauvages (2010) by Nina Bouraoui. These two narratives take place at the end of the 1970s in Algiers, a transitional period in Algerian history, but also a key moment where the generation born after independence in 1962 express and create their own memories of colonialism and the Algerian Revolution. The focus of the article will be to reveal the representation of postmemorial transmission across forms of mediation that are simultaneously affective, embodied and gendered. From this perspective, it analyses generational memory as a ‘mauvais cadeau’, photographs and other affective objects, and gendered multidirectional memory to show how Bouraoui’s novels trouble singular, normative expressions of gendered and national identity. Bouraoui’s protagonists from the post-generation are thus characterized as ‘mnemonic agents’ who cross gendered and national borders.