Chukri Khodja

Chukri Khodja (in Arabic: شكري خوجة), pseudonym of Hassen Khodja Hamdane, born on in Algiers and died in , was a French-speaking Algerian writer and author of two novels in the 1920s, often cited as one of the first Algerian novelists to write in French.

Biography Hassen Khodja Hamdane was born on in the Casbah of Algiers, into a family of small traders. He was educated in the colonial school system and also attended the madrasa. He published under the pseudonym Chukri Khodja. He died in .

Themes and critical reception In the article A novelist of troubled identity and impossible assimilation, Abdelkader Djeghloul analyses how Khodja plays a double game of language and identity between French and Arabic, between assimilation and otherness. The study The Splitting of the Hero in El Euldj, Captif des Barbaresques by A. Amrouch examines the duality of the main character, his conversion, his alienation, and his tragic end. Other academic studies explore the question of assimilation and identity awareness in the writer.

Honours and legacy Khodja's novels have been republished, are studied at Algerian literature conferences, and feature in overviews of early French-language Algerian literature. Specialist bookshops advertise his rare and antique editions.