A French-language Algerian writer of poetry, plays, novels, and satires who turned to popular theater in the spoken languages of Algeria (Algerian Arabic and Kabyle) in the last fifteen years of his life, Kateb Yacine (Kateb is his surname) was one of the founding figures of modern Algerian literature. Born in north-east Algeria in 1929, almost a century after France invaded Algiers, Kateb was one of the first writers to denounce French colonial rule in his fictional writings, most notably the novel Nedjma (1956) and the trilogy of plays published under the title Le cercle des représailles [The Circle of Reprisals] (1959). A columnist for the communist newspaper Alger Républicain in the late 1940s and early …
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Citation: Harrison, Olivia C.. "Yacine Kateb". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 August 2014 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12708, accessed 19 April 2024.]
