The countries of the Maghreb-Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia-were gradually colonized by France and share a similar fate, the wounds of which were difficult to heal, with some persisting to this day.1 The problematic relationship with language, the ambiguous position vis-à-vis the metropolis as well as the volatile, often inconsistent reception of French-language literature are the most prominent features. These factors influence not only the choice of language in which Maghrebian authors express themselves, but also the cultural policies of each country. Although French-language literature within each of the three countries reflects the specificities of each region, an ambiguous hybrid cultural identity is one shared remnant of the colonial history of the entire space.It should be remembered that colonization was not a new phenomenon in North Africa as the French came into the region throughout the 19th century. For three millennia, the Maghreb has been subjected to dominant historical forces, always with the same result: the indigenous writer eventually adopted the language of whoever dominated the region for his work, whether it was Latin in antiquity, Arabic from the 7th century onwards, or French twelve centuries later. The consequential legacy is the thorny question of (the) literary language, which weighs down and politicizes any debate to be had about literature.Given the historical situation, the Maghrebian writer of today finds himself at a linguistic crossroads (Boudraa, 2015). Daily, he encounters four sets of languages in his territory, two of which remained for a very long period only oral-Berber and local Arabic dialects-and two of which also have a written tradition-Classical Arabic and French. Unlike in sub-Saharan Africa, the Maghrebian author has always had at his disposal a written language other than French that has been used in North Africa for centuries. In many cases, however, he prefers the language of the more recent occupier-French-than that