Questions of Identity and the Implications of Islamic History in the Novel of “A Thousand and One Year of Nostalgia” by Rachid Boudjedra

Abstract

History, in its relationship with the novel, represents a narrative contract that based on delving into the worlds of storytelling and its various narratives. History, as a document, and the novel, as a creative and imaginative work, blends to question the implicit structure at times and the explicit one at others. This questioning is influenced by an aesthetic and cultural background that explains the Algerian novelist’s interest in the temporal dimensions and social spaces generated from the relationship between humans, their environment, and their present.

In our study, the selected novel explicitly reflects the dialogical interaction between historical and fictional narrations. By tracing its historical and imaginative paths, we were able to identify the key points that represent the reading and analytical conclusions of this narrative discourse and its inspiration from history.

The Algerian novelist relied on Islamic history, which was a source of inspiration and an opportunity to discover new worlds that were previously marginalized. These are the same worlds that contributed to shaping the contours of identity. Thus, history served as the referential and cognitive framework that encompassed it and its problems. This indicates that history is not separate from it, but rather represents its most prominent manifestation and a key element of its components.

Based on this, RachidBoudjedra re-imagined identity from different perspectives. He chose for it to be without a title and with lost features in his novel “A Thousand and One Year of Nostalgia”.