Abstract
A portrait essayist, Memmi was among the first to recognize that human beings contain many dimensions and layers contrary to specific political ideas, slogans, and battle cries. They are also strongly inconsistent creatures, torn between their different layers of identity and belonging, their competing yearnings and ideals that struggle to coexist. Memmi became an author who expressed more vividly than anyone else the rebellion against simplistic categorizations and labels: someone who was at the same time both Jewish and Arab; Tunisian, Italian, and French; African and European; a son of a low-income family and an honored member of the French literary elite; a secular believer; a Zionist who was critical of Israel; a Leftist who warned against violent revolutionism; a cosmopolitan who believed in national liberation, and yet also a harsh critic of the post-colonial regimes that emerged in the Global South. Offering an inventory of contradictions and constantly trying to make peace between these elements.