Few regions of the world have produced a twentieth-century literature so diverse in its languages, nationalities, and ethnicities as the Maghreb. One of the principal strains of this production is literature in French, the language of the last in the series of conquerors who imposed themselves on this corner of North Africa. Francophone literature raises many questions in a region where literary "by inference means political, too," since it is variously perceived as a sign of adherence to the attitudes of the colonized upper classes (for whom it became something of a lingua franca), a reminder of the injustices of the colonial period, a language utterly foreign to the cultures of the region, an anti-nationalist choice, a pro-modernist choice, and even as the only possible language of members of the diaspora who reside in Europe (Sellin & Abdel-Jaouad 162). But the choice to write in French (when the writer has a choice) is, however the writer perceives it, fraught with implications about culture, politics, tradition, and the legacy of colonialism. In this essay these questions will be raised in relation to the works of a number of MaghrTbine writers whose output ranges from the late colonialist period and the struggle for independence to the 1990s experience of writers living either in exile or by choice in France. The principal writers discussed here are the Moroccans Tahar Ben Jelloun and Abdelkebir Khatibi, the Algerians Kateb Yacine, Mouloud Mammeri, Assia Djebar, and Azouz Begag, "A Frenchman of Maghrebi origin" (Lay-Chenchabi). The discussion begins with a brief outline of the cultural and political situations in the Maghreb that have contributed to the formation of this literature and this is followed by a short discussion of various conceptions of MaghrTbine literature in French. The writers examined here address most of the principal conflicts that, while unwelcome in themselves, have never the less made this one of th...