Through the Settler’s Eye: A Visual History of Indigeneity in French Algeria and Israel/Palestine

Abstract

This thesis contributes to existing scholarship reflecting on the ways in which settler colonial narratives are used to enforce discriminatory conceptualisations of self and other in settler societies. In particular, my work investigates how visual narratives play a role in delineating and reproducing normative understandings of settlerhood and indigeneity, and how they convey colonial discourse to both domestic and international audiences. The thesis focuses on two case studies within the Middle East and North Africa region, looking at visual material produced by the French colonial government in Algeria and by Israel (or affiliated agencies) within the area of historic Palestine. Through my analysis, I identify discursive patterns delineating how indigenous Algerian and Palestinian communities were represented, and how this categorisation of the “other” affected the colonial understanding of settlerhood and of the colonial project. In particular, I identify a connection between the tropes used by settler colonial agencies to define both the settler self and the indigenous other, and the structure of colonial communication. As the visual material shows, indigeneity is seen not as an active participant in the communicative process (or, for that matter, in the definition of colonial categories of belonging), but is instead a passive subject of settler discourse. This, in turn, is aimed not at indigenous communities, but at domestic and international audiences that legitimise the existence of the settler colonial project. My work therefore hopes to challenge traditional claims of reciprocity in the colonial communicative process, highlighting how visual material makes use of the indigenous subject without intending it to be part of a mutual relationship. The hegemonic visual narratives produced by settler colonial authorities therefore emphasise the nature of the settler/indigenous relationship, and show the tropes associated with categories of belonging that are used to enforce discriminatory policies against indigenous communities.