Violent Beginnings: Literary Representations of Postcolonial Algeria explores how violence, during the War of Independence (1954{u2013}1962) to the more recent civil war (1991{u2013}2002), has shaped literary representations of both family and nation in contemporary literature. For example, discussions of the struggle for independence in Assia Djebar{u2019}s La femme sans sépulture and Ahlam Mostaghanemi{u2019}s Memory of the Flesh, represent sexual torture associated with this earlier war period as having a negative impact on victims{u2019} ability to have children and contribute to the development of the Algerian nation. Texts examining the more recent civil war such as Rachid Boudjedra{u2019}s La vie à l{u2019}endroit and Yasmina Salah{u2019}s Glass Nation establish a link between the earlier violence of the independence struggle and contemporary events. Additionally, these texts proceed to demonstrate how violence has shaped familial and national structures, more specifically causing distorted familial bonds and political chaos in contemporary Algerian society. -- From publisher's website.