The question of identity, national as well as personal, is a perennial one in the modern history of the Tunisian people. Crystallized and problematized as a central issue under colonialism, the question peaked during the 1930s with the naturalization crisis and the intensification of the nationalist movement, and has continued to haunt postcolonial Tunisia, reaching a new peak in the current revolution. With a focus on the 1930s, this paper looks at how Mahmoud Aslan -- one of the few Tunisians who had opted for French naturalization under the protectorate regime and arguably the first Tunisian who wrote fiction in French -- articulated and negotiated the question of identity in his work. In 1933, he wrote a play called Entre Deux Mondes in which Europeanized Tunisian characters struggle to define themselves vis-à-vis the colonial context and the prospects of decolonization in a time of effervescent nationalism. Aslan’s fiction, tales and essays also have an autobiographical resonance and reflect the dilemmas and soul searching of the westernized elite. Aslan preached a Western-Muslim rapprochement and envisioned himself a living example of cosmopolitan hybridity and human progress, but his countrymen chose to marginalize him and to forget his work, although the modernism embraced later by his independent nation had unmistakable affinities with his views. Today, however, his views are no longer minority views and they resonate among many Tunisians in the culture wars unleashed by the revolution.