This article is dedicated to the study of the question of generic contiguities within Berber (Kabyle) literature. It is devoted more particularly to the study of the boundaries between novels (ungal) and short stories (tullist). I show that the identities of literary genres do not depend only on a norm coming from elsewhere (from the West in particular) but that they are also shaped by the context from within which they evolve and by the function assigned to these genres.