Tahar Djaout, his freedom, his imagination: the base of literature

Abstract

Djaout promises to rewrite History from another point of view, offering a radically new reading, even demystifying official historiographic speech. If historical extension is always present in his works, autobiographical potential remains propitious, in the reviewing of Algerian History, in the corrosive verb of Les Chercheurs d’Os or in the brilliant verb of Les Vigiles and of Le Dernier Été
de la Raison : in search of a more complex, more poetical writing, where common tracks are present, as well as links connecting the different novels. Tahar Djaout’s humour and harsh critique will operate as a lash in his works. Poet of great sensitivity, discoverer of plural and inlaid roots, always avoiding the trap of ghettos and anathemas, with intuition [premonition?], he chosed a station to become humus and to feed, in turn, the land of his beloved Kabylia. He rests forever in Mehrab cemetery, in Oulkhou, since June 2, 1993. We will remember Aïcha words, that encouraged him to write : “From the dephts of dreams, poet’s voice said : Resist! Resist!”