Abstract
International audience Are the Imazighen/Berbers in a “situation of minority” in the Maghreb and in (North) Africanliteratures? Although raising such a question may seem paradoxical in the case of languagegroups that suffered censure and gross violence in colonial and postcolonial times, the notionof Amazigh/Berber minority can be tricky to discuss and is largely rejected by the Imazighenthemselves. Such an interrogation leads to questioning the relationships among historical actorsand to avoiding essentialist interpretations of minority and majority groups in North Africa. Theassigned “situation of minority” or majority needs to be reconstructed in the light of reciprocalhistorical dynamics by looking at cultural interaction and change and retracing inequality inpower relationships which are not simply dichotomic (dominant/dominated) but very mucharticulated ( Bertheleu 2008 : 29). Reflecting on “minor,” “minority,” and “minorization” inliterature offers an entrance to such dynamic constructions. This article investigates Amazigh/Berber literature and “literary space” by looking at the articulation of identity construction andat discourses on minority and majority in North Africa.