Les « frontières naturelles ». "Mon frère-ennemi" de Djilali Bencheikh, ou la vie dans un douar algérien à l’époque coloniale
The “Natural Boudaries”. "Mon frère-ennemi" by Djilali Bencheikh, or Life in an Algerian Douar during the Colonial Period

Summary/Abstract: The present paper focuses on a novel by Djilali Bencheikh, telling the story of Salim, a seven-year-old boy, living in an Algerian douar at the beginning of 1950s. While impatiently waiting for his circumcision, postponed due to financial problems, the boy discovers a number of “natural boundaries” defining the life in his community. Three types of “natural boundaries” are to be analysed in the paper: those separating men and women; the poor and the rich and the colonised and the coloniser. The existence of these boundaries leads to conflicts which are crucial for the boy to grow up and announces, in a very mild way, the future of his country.

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