Echoes of “dead” colonialism: The voices and materiality of a (post)colonial Algerian newspaper

Abstract

Through the concept of the echo, this article examines how postcolonial Algerians discursively locate and orient themselves in relation to the materiality of “dead” colonialism, which I broadly define as the physical presence of objects, voices, and sensual qualities (accompanied by aesthetic, value, and moral judgments) that Algerians see as persisting from the colonial before. I argue that an echo in discourse hinges on a tripartite dialogic structure: the dynamic interplay of past voices/signs, present listeners, and the material surfaces that reflect these voices/signs with delay, distortion, and varied intensity. Through the narratives of three directors of three different iterations of a local newspaper in Oran, Algeria, I examine how past voices and sounds reverberate across the threshold of the colonial and postcolonial divide and create sociopolitical and interpersonal effects that often challenge the notion that colonialism is “dead and gone.” This article advances scholarship on language materiality by positing that the material world is more than just the setting in which material speech and social action occur; rather, the material world shapes how language is heard and stances are taken in concrete ways. I conclude that echoes are central to how people tell stories about their past that matter in the present.