Grotesque themes as Representatives of Reality

Comedy and Horror in the Literature of Waciny Laredj

Abstract

This study examines the themes and distinctive features of the grotesque as manifested in the literary works of Algerian author Waciny Laredj (Wasīnī al-Aʿraj), who depicts the Algerian reality through an experimental form of novelistic writing. Laredj makes use of the features of the grotesque—sarcasm, irony, amplification, exaggeration and the nightmarish—as a way of silhouetting Algeria’s situation and highlighting the struggle against both Islamic and state terrorism. Major similarities are noted between the style of the grotesque and elements central to novelistic narrative, such as polyphony and parallel plots. The grotesque reveals itself linguistically and stylistically in Laredj’s novels through their plots, the fantastical atmosphere that prevails throughout, and the use of analepsis, foreshadowing, omission, close-up shots and exaggeration. Specific examples of these phenomena are found in his Ḍamīr al-Ghā’ib (Third Person Pronoun) (1990) and Ḥārisat al-Ẓilāl (Guardian of the Shadows) (1997), in which human beings take on other forms by means of bizarre devices, and in which state terrorism mingles with Islamic terrorism in an atmosphere of comedic horror.