“Aujourd’hui, M’ma est encore vivant” (Daoud 11). With this sentence, Kamel Daoud opens his novel Meursault, contre-enquête and at once establishes an intertextual relationship to Albert Camus’ L’étranger. Set in the liberated Algeria over half a century after Camus’ protagonist Meursault notoriously shot an Arab on the beach, the novel revisits the events from the perspective of the murder victim’s brother. Next to this preliminary reference, the latter novel is spiked with allusion, retellings but also commentary and criticism on Camus’ work.

I always think it is difficult to do a self-reflection, as it forces one to take a step back from the comfortable position of the observer and redirect the spotlight to oneself. While I initially felt a strong aversion to this exam question, why should my personal attitudes matter for a grade, upon closer reflection, I increasingly realized how crucial this skill is.