An Investigation of Censorship in North African Literature and Film

Schimmel/Conrades Science Center Atrium

This project examines the history of censorship as it relates to contemporary North African francophone literature and film, specifically Mohammed Choukri's autobiographical text Le Pain Nu and Gillo Pontecorvo's film The Battle of Algiers. Historically, pieces of film and literature have been edited or amended in such a way that minimizes, trivializes, or detracts from the intended message for the purposes of masking unpleasant historical events, or exercising political control. Censorship exists in many forms, such as banning certain types of art and literature, prefacing, and excluding certain details to mask reality. The works mentioned above will be used to investigate whether or not using “artistic license” falls under the umbrella of censorship, and how it may obscure the line between truth and fiction.