Algerian Imprints - Ethical Space in the Work of Assia Djebar and Hélène Cixous

Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-0-231-17256-1
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 232 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 458 g

Born and raised in French Algeria, Assia Djebar and Hélène Cixous represent in their literary works signs of conflict and enmity, drawing on discordant histories so as to reappraise the political on the very basis of dissensus.

In a rare comparison of these authors' writings, this book shows how Cixous and Djebar consistently reclaim for ethical and political purposes the demarcations and dislocations emphasized in their fictions. Their works affirm the chance for thinking afforded by marginalization and exclusion and delineate political ways of preserving a space for difference informed by expropriation and non-belonging. Cixous's inquiry is steeped in her formative encounter with the grudging integration of the Jews in French Algeria, while Djebar's narratives concern the colonial separation of "French" and "Arab," self and other. Yet both authors elaborate strategies to address inequality and injustice without resorting to tropes of victimization, challenging and transforming the understanding of the history and legacy of colonized space.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weltman-Aron, Brigitte

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Afrikanische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literatursoziologie, Gender Studies
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Romanische Literaturen Französische Literatur Postkoloniale Literaturen in Französisch, Französische Literatur außerhalb Europas
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kolonialgeschichte, Geschichte des Imperialismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Dissensus: The Political in the Writings of Djebar and CixousPart 1. Colonial Demarcations1. The Gravity of the Body: Djebar's and Cixous's Textuality2. Going to School in French Algeria: The Archive of Colonial EducationPart 2. Poetics of Language3. Vanishing Inscriptions: Djebar's Poetics of the Trace4. Poetic Inc.: Language as Hospitality in CixousPart 3. Algerian War5. The Sound of Broken Memory: Djebar's Women Fighters6. Allergy in the Body Politic: War in CixousConclusion: The Logic of the Veil; orBibliographyNotesIndex

Über Autor(innen)

Brigitte Weltman-Aron is associate professor of French at the University of Florida and the author of On Other Grounds: Landscape Gardening and Nationalism in Eighteenth-Century England and France.