About
Albert Memmi, born in Tunis in 1920 into a modest Jewish family, was a French-language writer and essayist. His work explores themes of identity, colonization, and exile. His first novel, The Pillar of Salt (1953), with a preface by Albert Camus, is semi-autobiographical. His essay The Colonizer and the Colonized (1957), with a preface by Jean-Paul Sartre, is a foundational text of postcolonial studies. He taught sociology in Paris and received the Grand Prix de la Francophonie in 2004. He died in 2020 in Neuilly-sur-Seine.
* 1920-12-15 — † 2020-05-22
Major works
- La Statue de sel (1953)novel
- Portrait du colonisé, précédé du Portrait du colonisateur (1957)essay
- Agar (1955)novel
- Portrait d'un Juif (1962)essay
- Le Scorpion (1969)novel
Key milestones
- 1953Publication of The Pillar of Salt, with a preface by Albert Camus.
- 1957Publication of The Colonizer and the Colonized, with a preface by Jean-Paul Sartre.
- 2004Receives the Grand Prix de la Francophonie from the Académie française.
Themes
identitycolonizationexileJewishnessotherness
Sources: id.loc.gov · archives.yale.edu · britannica.com