The work in question

The work in question

The first thing I noticed when walking into the East Gallery of Buell Hall (which I learned was also the Maison Francaise upon looking up the venue) was just how many people had packed into the room. I knew The Meursault Investigation, named after the book which was to be discussed that night, was going to draw a crowd, but I wasn’t expecting almost every glass chair (much fancier than any chairs I’ve seen Columbia roll out in the past) to be filled filled.

After exchanging my CUID for a pair of headphones, which allowed us non-French speakers to listen to a live translation of the book discussion and Q&A, I sat down and played around with the volume settings. I could hear a smattering of English in the room, but most of the conversations occurring around me were in French. A faint scent of tobacco hung in the still air as we waited for Kamel Daoud, author of the award winning novel, to take his seat on stage.

Daoud’s novel, for those unfamiliar with the name Meursault, is a response to Albert Camus’ famed 1942 existentialist novel, The Stranger. In The Stranger, a French man in colonial Algeria, identified only as Meursault, essentially kills an Arab in cold blood. The novel is told in first person perspective, following Meursault through his love life, interactions with his neighbours, the killing of the Arab, and his subsequent criminal trial.

Daoud writes his novel from the first person perspective of Josef, the brother of the murdered Arab—who Daoud names Musa. When questioned why he wrote the novel, which was published around the centennial of Camus’ birth, Daoud denied any connection to the anniversary of Camus’ birth. Although his novel was published in Algeria in 2013, he actually wrote it 18 months earlier. He recalled how, after writing an editorial about his annoyance at the state of Camus’ legacy in the Francophone world, his editor told him the subject matter would make a good novel.

Thus, Daoud said his novel was “born out of accidence, annoyance. A desire to be free.” He holds no contempt for Camus, despite how controversial Camus’ The Stranger is in Algeria. In fact, Daoud first read Camus when he was 20 after withdrawing from a long religious period. Camus’ existentialism allowed Daoud to construct a framework for analyzing and understanding the world not based around religion. And even though he admired Camus and enjoyed The Stranger, Daoud was much more interested in Camus’ other works: Sisyphus, Caligula, and The Fall.

So what exactly did Daoud hope to accomplish in writing The Meursault Investigation? According to Daoud, it was about creating an equilibrium, not “adding anything.” Meursault’s first person perspective “kills” the Other, creating what Daoud describes as a “denial through monologue.” As a result, there is no “body” produced from Meursault’s murder. Daoud wanted to provide this “body,” to reclaim the speech which Camus’ first person narrative inherently eliminates. Any deeper reasoning, however, did not contribute much to his thought process. “When you think too much,” Daoud said, “it becomes artificial.” Elements of The Meursault Investigation, such as Josef’s relationship with his mother, “imposed itself.” Daoud compared his writing process to dreaming; “When you’re dreaming, you don’t choose the dream but you choose the interpretation.”

His writing in French, a controversial action in Algeria which still suffers from a violent post-colonial legacy, was claimed “as a spoil of war.” Daoud qualifies this by recounting when the French colonists left, it was up to the state to distribute the abandoned properties. The Algerian government named these properties as “available goods.” French, in this manner, was an “available good.” Daoud found French independently, taught himself the language, and repurposed his understanding of the language for his literature. As such, his use of French was formed not out of colonial impressment but from a co-opting of the French postcolonial legacy.

In publishing his novel, Daoud faced many pressures which acted against his possible success. The Algerian book publishing market suffers from a lack of distribution spots, and a French publishing would have resulted in overpricing. He wants his writings to be read by Algerians first or “at the same time” as other readers. He believes his writing can only have meaning if it’s for Algerians. Otherwise “it’s like publishing in the North Pole.” Daoud felt pressure from the government and conservative Islamic elements in Algeria as well, but never faltered in his drive to publish in Algeria. “I am responsible for what I write,” Daoud said, “not what readers interpret.”

Daoud ended his talk with a Q&A, where many of the questions centered around Daoud’s thoughts regarding oppressive regimes in the context of the Arab Spring and the cycle of Islamist and secular governments. Daoud claims such oppression, as seen in Eastern Europe under the Soviets, produces a tragedy which makes great literature. “If I am quiet, it means the extremists have won,” Daoud stated with conviction.

Daoud concluded the Q&A with responding to a question about his thoughts on the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. He claimed The Meursault Investigation to really be about the relationship to “the Other,” which is not specific to the context of Algeria. His readers have a right to interpret his novel in relation to the “one sided conversation” which seems to characterize the experience of African-American in the United States. Accordingly, Daoud condones these movements and believes his novel to function in parallel to such protests and rallies.

Kamel Daoud spoke with such a sense of humility that it was almost hard to believe he was such a celebrated author. His novel, ostensibly a response to the depiction of Algeria in The Stranger, conveys much more than just a simple response. It’s about love, as well as religion, language, and identity in Algeria. His work, though it seems subversive, is simply an importation of something new into the French language. The only thing Daoud can do, he said, is to make his ideas as clear and concise as possible. Not out of fear, but out of a desire to express a truth unable to be misinterpreted.

Book cover from the event page