Malek Alloula

Malek Alloula (1937–2015) was an Algerian poet, writer, editor, and literary critic.

He is chiefly notable for his poetry and essays on philosophy. He wrote several books, including Le Harem Colonial in 1981, translated into English as The Colonial Harem, which was generally well received. The author analyses colonial photographic postcards of Algerian women from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, arguing that the postcards do not accurately represent Algerian women, but rather a Frenchman's fantasy of the "Oriental" female.

Biography He was born November 3, 1937, in Oran, Algeria. Having graduated from the École Normale Supérieure, he further studied literature at the University of Algiers and La Sorbonne, Paris, where he wrote his doctoral thesis on Denis Diderot, a French philosopher and writer.

He married Assia Djebar, an Algerian filmmaker and novelist, in 1980; they divorced in 2005. He was the director of the Abdelkader Alloula Foundation, which honors his brother Abdelkader Alloula, a playwright and stage director who was assassinated in 1994 by members of Islamic Front for Armed Jihad.

Works Dans tout ce blanc Rhubarbe, Auxerre, Barzah Algiers 2015 Algérie indépendance. Les festins de l'exil. Alger 1951: un pays dans l'attente. Une enfance algérienne. Rêveurs/sépultures; suivi de L'exercice des sens: poèmes. Belles Algériennes de Geiser. Villes et autres lieux: poèmes. L'accès au corps: poème. Villes (poems) Le cri de tarzan, la nuit dans un village oranais: nouvelles. Alger: photographiée au XIXe siècle. Approchant du seuil ils dirent. Mesures du vent: poème Le harem colonial: images d'un sous-érotisme. Causses et vallées. Villes et autres Leux: Poèmes. Paysages d'un retour. L'Exercice des sens. L'autre regard. Rêveurs-sépultures: suivi de Mesures du vent : poèmes.