The Crisis of the Legitimate Ego in "What the Day Owes the Night"

Abstract

In this article, we answer a central question that emerged in the novel "What the Day Owes the Night" and in the film that was based on it. It is related to concerning the Algerian and the French, and which of them is more deserving to consider himself the legitimate ego, which means treating the second party in the relationship as another. Is it the Algerian as the owner of the land with the power of historical existence? Or is it the French who ruled with the power of the colonial authority? Is the ideological harmony unable to heal and unite the two parties? This is dome through a comparison between Yasmina Khadra's novel and Alexandre Arcady's film, focusing on the vision of each one of them, according to his sociocultural background and his position on the history of the Algerian case.