YOUNES'S PERPLEXING HYBRIDITY IN KHADRA'S WHAT THE DAY OWES THE NIGHT
YOUNES'S PERPLEXING HYBRIDITY IN KHADRA'S WHAT THE DAY OWES THE NIGHT

Summary/Abstract: This study investigates the structure and reverberations of AlgerianFrench hybridity in Khadra's novel What the Day Owes the Night, as represented by Younes the protagonist. Being called Younes and Jonas, talking French and Arabic, living in Algerian Jnane Jatto and French Rio Salado, the protagonist is viewed here as an incarnation of hybridity practiced by some Algerians during French colonialism. We contend that such state of being does not necessarily imply deliberate submissiveness to the colonizer; rather, it sometimes reflects the colonized's confusion and uncertainty regarding resisting colonialism without complying with its stereotypical perspectives or propaganda. The study deploys Bhabha's perspective of hybridity, ambivalence, and unhomeliness to decipher Younes's hybridity, concluding that What the Day Owes the Night discharges hybrid individuals from any guilt of national disloyalty or estrangement towards their native countries.

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