Silence and Nostalgia: Periodizing the Past in an Algiers Neighborhood
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Edward McAllister
Abstract: This article explores the ways in which contemporary Algerians relate to their past. More specifically, it asks how the past is split into chunks and seeks to understand the assessments people make of these periods. It also looks at perceptions of different events as turning points and particularly at the nationbuilding period of the 1970s, which simultaneously informs judgments about the present and is reimagined according to present subjectivities. It argues that despite a post-colonial official historiography that ends abruptly with independence in 1962 and takes the colonial period and the War of Independence as the total meaning of history, Algerians are making judgments about the past and the present based on more recent periods and are thereby questioning the salience of official narratives of the past.
© De Gruyter 2014
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Nachruf auf Ernst J. Grube (1932–2011)
- Introduction – What is in a Period? Arabic Historiography and Periodization
- Periodization as a Tool of the Historian with Special Reference to Islamic History
- Vanishing Syria: Periodization and Power in Early Islam
- Al-Jāhiliyya: Uncertain Times of Uncertain Meanings
- Dynastic Periodization and its Limits: Historiography in Contemporary Arab Monarchies
- Frames of Time: Periodization and Universals in the Works of Abdallah Laroui
- Silence and Nostalgia: Periodizing the Past in an Algiers Neighborhood
- Reviews
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Nachruf auf Ernst J. Grube (1932–2011)
- Introduction – What is in a Period? Arabic Historiography and Periodization
- Periodization as a Tool of the Historian with Special Reference to Islamic History
- Vanishing Syria: Periodization and Power in Early Islam
- Al-Jāhiliyya: Uncertain Times of Uncertain Meanings
- Dynastic Periodization and its Limits: Historiography in Contemporary Arab Monarchies
- Frames of Time: Periodization and Universals in the Works of Abdallah Laroui
- Silence and Nostalgia: Periodizing the Past in an Algiers Neighborhood
- Reviews
