Women novelists and women in the struggle for Algeria's national liberation (1957-1980)

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Periodical article

Title:	Women novelists and women in the struggle for Algeria's national liberation (1957-1980)
Author:	Tahon, M.-B.
Year:	1992
Periodical:	Research in African Literatures
Volume:	23
Issue:	2
Pages:	39-50
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Algeria
Subjects:	national liberation struggles women writers novels Historical/Biographical nationalism literature
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/3820393
Abstract:	Until 1980, twenty years after the end of the war of national liberation, the writing of Algerian women seemed only to deserve notice when it dealt with the war. This is true of French criticism before independence as well as of Algerian criticism afterwards. In 1957, Assia Djebar's first novel, 'La soif', appeared. In 1980, her fifth book appeared, which marked the closure of a period in her work. 1980 was also the year of the 'Kabyle spring' and the year that saw the rise of Muslim fundamentalism in Algeria. The choice of novels discussed in this essay (the first five novels of Djebar, two novels of Aïcha Lemsine (1976 and 1978) and one novel by Yamina Mechakra (1979)) is governed by a certain unity of time, but also by a desire to reexamine the specific way in which Algerian women novelists have been called upon to 'bear witness'. The author examines this process in which women are relegated to symbol, paying particular attention to the critical appraisal of the works of the three writers. Bibliogr.