Le Silence du Président ou le Dialogisme en Péril dans Monsieur le Président de Hamid Skif

Resumo

In his epistolary novel, Monsieur le Président, the Algerian writer Hamid Skif paints a black picture of the political situation in  Algeria marked by censorship and a breakdown of communication between the rulers and the ruled. The main character attempts to exercise his right to free expression through letter writing: he writes forty letters to the president, all of which go unanswered. We will analyze the president’s silence by deconstructing the subversion of epistolary writing codes, the dialogism that permeates this exchange—despite being nonexistent—between a talkative sender and a taciturn recipient. Then, we will interpret this political silence in light of the philosophy of the absurd.