A Community of their own? Citizens and Sisters in Algeria

Abstract

The articles gathered in this volume focus on counter-narratives of the nation that question the dominant nationalist representations and explore the mechanisms of manufacturing national unity through the exclusion of alterity. The contributors attempt to answer several questions connected with the problematic concept of nation: How does the nation write its other(s)? How does the other re-write the nation? What cultural artefacts are instrumental in the processes of continual re-inscription? How is one's nationality lived? What symbolic practices does the formation of national identity entail? What is the role of the category of "nation" in the production of race, gender, bodies? What are the restrictions as well as the potential openings present in the notion of nation? The Nation of the Other gathers multiple perspectives and identifies various aspects of alterity in national discourses and their counter-narratives. The editors hope that the volume, showing different approaches to resistance, should help the readers re-imagine the nation as a community of Others: a site of heterogeneity, fluidity and transformation.