Historical and Factual Imagination in the Novel Hallabil by Samir Qasimi

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine Samir Qasimi’s novel Halabil as a representative work of contemporary Algerian narrative fiction, and to explore how it reconstructs a crucial moment in Algerian history through a creative interplay between documented events and fictional imagination. The study focuses on the novel’s reliance on an old manuscript written by Sébastien de la Croix in early 1808, a text that reveals a hidden and rarely acknowledged truth about the French presence in Algeria prior to the official occupation. Rather than reproducing the French colonial narrative—which claimed that France came to civilize, enlighten, and modernize the supposedly “backward” Algerian people—the novel exposes the ideological manipulation behind such claims and highlights the violence and domination that shaped the colonial project. Building on a complex narrative structure, Halabil blends historical elements with the marvelous and the mythical, particularly through the symbolic use of the myth of creation or beginnings. This mythological dimension serves as a metaphorical framework that mirrors the tension between truth and fabrication, memory and distortion. The novel is further enriched by a diverse set of characters—real, imagined, and marginal—whose destinies converge around the search for the manuscript. Their collective pursuit forms the backbone of the plot, while their eventual deaths, including that of the narrator, underscore the fatalistic and tragic tone that governs the narrative world. By analyzing these narrative mechanisms, the paper seeks to illuminate the broader tendencies of contemporary Algerian literature, especially its experimentation with narrative forms, its engagement with national memory, and its reimagining of historical events. The findings reveal that Halabil constructs a parallel historical discourse that not only expands interpretative possibilities but also reinforces the aesthetic and intellectual vitality of modern Algerian storytelling.