Reception and Rewriting: Dostoevsky as a Formal and Philosophical Resource in French and Algerian Literature

Abstract

This article examines the reception and transformation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's work in the French and Algerian literary fields, focusing on how his novels have served as both formal and philosophical resources across different historical contexts. Moving beyond a simple model of literary influence, the study adopts a comparatist perspective to analyse how Dostoevsky's ideas and narrative techniques were reinterpreted and redeployed by major twentieth-century writers. In France, André Gide engages with Dostoevskian psychological fragmentation and narrative multiplicity to rethink the structure of the modern novel. At the same time, Albert Camus reads Dostoevsky through the philosophical crises of nihilism and revolt that shaped the twentieth century. In Algeria, Kateb Yacine mobilises polyphonic narrative structures, partly mediated by Faulkner and later theorised by Bakhtin, to articulate the fragmented consciousness of a colonised society and to challenge the formal conventions of the French realist novel. Through these three case studies, the article demonstrates that the reception of Dostoevsky is not merely a matter of textual transmission but an act of creative reinterpretation shaped by cultural, philosophical, and political contexts. Ultimately, the study highlights how Dostoevsky’s work participates in a transnational literary dialogue linking Russia, France, and Algeria and how this dialogue reveals the capacity of great literary works to generate divergent yet productive reinterpretations across time and space.