This paper considers censorship as an apparatus of both discourse and practice, taking Algeria as its case study. The accusation of censorship should be considered within a transnational literary field, with the effect of heroizing or stigmatizing the writers who are deemed subject to it. In fact, the diversity and complexity of the types of censorship, be it directly state censorship at the Algerian national level, or market censorship at (mostly) the editorial French level, invite us to nuance the image of a vice bent to stifle Algerian writers’ freedom of expression.