Kamel Daoud (Algeriet) i samtal med Kholod Saghir
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In this poignant episode of Författarscenen, Algerian author Kamel Daoud engages in a deep, multilayered conversation with host Kholod Saghir, exploring the themes of memory, trauma, and identity in post-colonial Algeria. Daoud reflects on his exile in France and the profound silence surrounding the 'Black Decades'—the brutal civil war of the 1990s—highlighting how the absence of public discourse, memorialization, and truth-telling has left a generational wound. Through his novel R., he crafts a radical narrative voice in the form of Fajr, a woman whose monologue becomes a metaphor for Algeria’s silenced collective trauma. The conversation unfolds with lyrical intensity, examining the contradictions of faith, gender, and resistance, particularly how women bear the brunt of violence and societal repression. Daoud emphasizes that literature is not about ideology but about feeling, and that writing is an act of resurrection—transforming death into life. He also reflects on the personal cost of truth-telling, acknowledging that his work has been banned in Algeria and that he lives with constant risk, yet insists that art outlives regimes and political contexts. The dialogue closes with a hopeful vision: literature as a space where the future can be imagined, even in the shadow of the past.
Literature is the opposite of life: it begins in death and sorrow, but ends in life and transformation.
The silence around Algeria’s civil war is not accidental—it’s a deliberate erasure that must be confronted through storytelling.
Women’s voices in war are not just victims—they are carriers of memory, resistance, and the possibility of renewal.
Writing is an act of courage, not martyrdom; it’s a compulsion that overrides fear, even when it brings danger.
True literature transcends political regimes and time—it endures because it speaks to universal human contradictions.
Welcome to the International Authors Stage
Host Pontus Pikovski welcomes listeners to Författarscenen and introduces Algerian author Kamel Daoud, setting the stage for a conversation on exile, memory, and literary resistance.
The Weight of Return: Generational Trauma and Identity
“How can you become Frenchman or Swedish if you all the time would live with your dream of returning to home?”
The Birth of Fajr: A Woman’s Voice in the Silence
“It's the women who pay the most in war. But no reader will support 400 pages of monolog.”
The Contradiction at the Heart of the Novel
“Because I love you very much that I will kill her. And when we find the profound contradiction, Selva, she's a troller.”
The Real is More Unbelievable Than Fiction
Daoud describes how real-life contradictions—like a beauty salon next to a mosque—inspired the novel’s surreal yet truthful setting. He argues that fiction must feel, not reflect.
“We remember it in Herman Hess' work, but we don't remember the political context behind it, or Kundra in Tjecki. We still remember books, and they were still alive.”
“Because I love you very much that I will kill her. And when we find the profound contradiction, Selva, she's a troller.”
“For me, the reason for writing a roman is that the roman is the opposite to life. A life goes from birth to death, while a roman goes in the opposite direction.”
Host
Guest
Kamel Daoud
person
Algeria
place
R.
book
France
place
Fajr
other
Kholod Saghir
person
Black Decades
other
Abraham
other
Khadija
other
Ulla Brunkrona
person
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