DRABETS SEMIOTIK: Eksempler fra krigen i Algeriet 1954-1962

Resumé

This article analyses the ways in which

the paramilitary group FLN-ALN used to

kill its enemies in the French and the

Muslim populations during the Algerian

“War of Independence” from 1954-1962.

Through empirical material from

classified French military archives the

article demonstrates that the FLN-ALN’s

methods of killing their French enemies

differed from the way they killed their

Muslim enemies. Based on this observation,

it is argued that FLN-ALN’s war,

in fact, consisted of two separate wars: An

external war with the objective of establishing

an independent Algerian state and

an internal war with the objective of

creating a “liberated” Algerian society.

These two wars were not only fought

against different enemies but also were

conceptualized differently. FLN-ALN

transformed the two wars into radically

different forms and methods of physical

violence and killing. Hence, the central

argument of the article is that forms of

violence are signs, as understood in

semiotic analysis, and that FLN-ALN used

the physical treatment of the two enemies’

bodies to communicate with friendly and

opposed political communities both inand

outside of Algeria