Reciprocating Care in French Survivor Narratives from the Algerian War

Abstract

Three women who survived bombings as children during the Algerian War (1954-1956) published autobiographies of their recovery between 2012 and 2016. Danielle Michel-Chich had a leg amputated when she was five after a bombing in Algiers, Nicole Simon’s legs were burned and scarred from a bombing in Mostaganem when she was fifteen and Delphine Renard was blinded and disfigured at the age of four when a bomb exploded in her Parisian home. Each woman recounts the pain and guilt of survival and grapples with how to reciprocate the care they received. Using a social justice framework, this essay examines how narratives of care build connections between people. As the child survivors of terrorist attacks cope with medical and personal care after bodily trauma, writing becomes a major part of self-care in the recovery process.