Algerian imprints : ethical space in the work of Assia Djebar and Hélène Cixous / Brigitte Weltman-Aron.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Weltman-Aron, Brigitte, 1961- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Djebar, Assia, 1936-2015--Criticism and interpretation.

Djebar, Assia.

Cixous, Hélène, 1937---Criticism and interpretation.

Cixous, Hélène.

Women and literature--Algeria.

Women and literature.

Politics and literature--Algeria.

Politics and literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (228 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York, [New York] : Columbia University Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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, Algerian Imprints 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 nonbelonging. 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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Dissensus; or, The Political in the Writings of Djebar and Cixous

PART ONE: Colonial Demarcations

chapter one The Gravity of the Body: Djebar's and Cixous's Textuality

Chapter two Going to School in French Algeria: The Archive of Colonial Education

PART TWO: Poetics of Language

Chapter three: Vanishing Inscriptions: Djebar's Poetics of the Trace

Chapter four: Poetic Inc.: Language as Hospitality in Cixous

PART THREE: Algerian War

Chapter five: The Sound of Broken Memory: Djebar's Women Fighters

Chapter six: Allergy in the Body Politic: War in Cixous

Conclusion: The Logic of the Veil; or, The Epistemology of Nonseeing

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780231539876

0231539878

OCLC:

918622378