دراسات وأبحاث
Volume 18, Numéro 4, Pages 537-548
2026-10-15
Displacement, Memory, And The Wounds Of Colonialism In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart And Yasmina Khadra’s What The Day Owes The Night
Authors : Djamila Khelf . Yakout Khelf .
Abstract
This article explores colonial rupture, identity displacement, and cultural memory in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Yasmina Khadra’s What the Day Owes the Night. Although rooted in different historical contexts, British colonial rule in Nigeria and French occupation in Algeria, both novels portray the destructive impact of colonial domination on individuals and communities. Drawing on postcolonial theories of Frantz Fanon, Homi Bhabha, and Edward Said, the study argues that displacement involves the loss of land and traditions as well as a profound crisis of identity and belonging. Achebe depicts the collapse of Igbo cultural structures through Okonkwo’s tragic fate, while Khadra presents Younes’s divided identity as a result of colonial assimilation and alienation. Yet, both authors transform memory into a form of resistance: Achebe through the preservation of oral traditions and Khadra through nostalgic remembrance. Their works demonstrate how literature records colonial wounds while safeguarding cultural memory and reconstructing identity.
Keywords
colonialism ; identity displacement ; , postcolonial theory ; , cultural memory ; resistance
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