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Humor and Power in Algeria, 1920 to 2021
Published by: Indiana University Press
430 Pages, 28 b&w illus.
This book can be purchased from this website 60 days before the publish date
- Paperback
- 9780253067616
- Published: November 2023
$48.00
This book can be purchased from this website 60 days before the publish date
- Hardcover
- 9780253067609
- Published: November 2023
$90.00
Other Retailers:
In times of violent conflict, humor has served Algerians as a tool of both detachment and engagement. When threats of violence and censorship from competing authoritarian powers severely curtailed most forms of expression, jokes, cartoons, folk tales, and satirical songs provided safe havens for Algerians to creatively participate in the historical moment.
By analyzing popular jokes and comedic discourse during civil conflicts, Humor and Power in Algeria, 1920 to 2021 demonstrates the globally informed and creative ways that civilians made sense of uncertainty and horror—and struggled to survive it. Using oral interviews and media archives in Arabic, French, and Tamazight, Elizabeth M. Perego expands on theoretical debates about humor as a tool of resistance and explores the importance of humor as an instrument of war, peace, and social memory, as well as a source for retracing volatile, contested pasts.
Humor and Power in Algeria, 1920 to 2021 reveals how Algerians harnessed humor to express competing visions for unity in a divided colonial society, to channel and process emotions surrounding a brutal war of decolonization and the forging of a new nation, and to demonstrate resilience in the face of horrific conflicts.
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration
List of Illustrations
Introduction: The Price of Humor in Algeria's "Time of Terrorism"
1. Chapter One: Side-Splitting While Nation-Forming, 1914 to the 1980s
2. Chapter Two: Humor in Rebellion and Uncertain Political Transition, 1988 to 1992
3. Chapter Three: Laughing at Victims and Assailants through Popular Jokes from the "Black Decade"
4. Chapter Four: Cartoonists Drawing Lines through the Ambiguities of Terror, 1992-1997
5. Chapter Five: Cartoons "Dancing on Coffins" and Drumming Up Memory During Reconciliation, 1997-2005
Conclusion: Remembering Algeria's 1990s Conflict and Humor over Time
Bibliography
Index
Elizabeth M. Perego is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Appalachian State University. Her work has appeared in the Journal of North African Studies and the International Journal of Middle East Studies.
"Elizabeth Perego deconstructs the notion that humor is merely a 'weapon of the weak' by focusing on comedy's myriad functions, demonstrating that humor can support and/or challenge those in power, as well as those seeking power. Stated differently, humor can be used to unify or divide communities."
~Jennifer Howell, author of The Algerian War in French-Language Comics: Postcolonial Memory, History, and Subjectivity
"Humor and Power in Algeria, 1920 to 2021 is the first book in English to examine in a systematic and sustained manner the role of humor in Algerian history and politics. It is genuinely pioneering. It engages with a subject everyone can connect with—what makes us laugh—but this is an aspect of Algerian society that is little understood outside of Algeria and France. Elizabeth Perego humanizes and de-exoticizes a region that has been subject to so many pernicious stereotypes in the 'Western' media."
~Martin Evans, author of Algeria: France's Undeclared War