L'Hôte. La nouvelle d’Albert Camus et la bande dessinée de Jacques Ferrandez dans le contexte colonial

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Preface by Hubert Ripoll.

With the participation of Maurice Calmein, Roger Vétillard, Luc Verlinde, Georges Hirtz, Odette Caparros, Jean Monneret and Jean-Jacques Jordi.

The Guest: Schoolteacher Daru between two fires

Algeria, 1946: For a year, schoolteacher Daru has lived alone in his school lost on the High Plateaus, where he welcomes Muslim children from the neighboring villages.

In mid-October, the gendarme Balducci arrives at his home with an Arab prisoner. Daru welcomes them as guests. He subsequently learns that the Arab killed his cousin and must be taken to the Tinguit prison because the gendarme must return to his post due to an uprising. However, Daru refuses to hand over his guest because "it is contrary to honor."

The gendarme leaves: he is annoyed but will not denounce his friend. Daru is therefore forced to host the Arab, prepare his meal, and even spend the night next to him. Will his prisoner take the opportunity to flee? No, the next morning, he is still there.

Daru finally leads him to a fork in the road where he must choose to go surrender to the authorities or take refuge with the nomads. Daru returns home but, worried, retraces his steps and sees "the Arab walking slowly on the road to the prison." Returning to his school, he discovers threats of vengeance written on the blackboard. Pursued by the relatives of the Arab, who believe he handed over one of their own, and disowned by his compatriots who accuse him of betraying them in the face of the insurrection, Daru is now alone.

Analysis of the short story

Who is this Arab "with the animal mouth" who killed his cousin "for grain" or for "family matters"? How does his murder appear in the light of the Quran? Why does the Arab not take refuge with the nomads as Daru suggests? What are the "message" and political significance of the short story in the context of the Algerian War? Why choose the High Plateaus and "Tinguit" – in the manuscript Trézel – as the location for the action? What is this "uprising" of 1946?

The author tries to provide answers to all these questions and many others by conducting an in-depth analysis of the short story and its genesis in the colonial context, enriched by a meticulous comparison of the story with the comic book by Jacques Ferrandez.

The reader will find in this work a section "Analyses and documents" of 140 pages containing among other things:

An important chronology of Algeria and the Algerian War (1954-1962) (54 pages).

Commented excerpts from the works of Mouloud Feraoun, Jean Brune, Georges Hirtz, Guy de Maupassant, Victor Hugo and many others.

Analyses by Roger Vétillard on the uprising of May 1945 in Sétif, on that of August 20, 1955, in the Constantinois, and on the Palestro massacre.

A critique of the "apostles of decolonization" Frantz Fanon, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Memmi.

Additional sketches by Jacques Ferrandez, various tables, maps, and diagrams, and numerous testimonies about life in Algeria.

Information on the High Plateaus and Trézel.

An analysis of the role of teachers and textbooks in Algeria, etc.

Publication date: March 26, 2014

Format: 20 cm x 30 cm (A4)

198 pages, 40 of which are in color

Weight: 840g

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