22nd Annual Student Research Conference
A Postcolonial Look at Assia Djebar's Feminism in Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade
David J. Giovagnoli
Dr. Hena Ahmad, Faculty Mentor
In Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade (L'amour, la fantasia), Assia Djebar says that writing Arabic calligraphy is like swaying to music, but writing in French makes her feel hunched over and constrained. However, French, her self-described step-mother tongue, although constraining, allows her to discuss the liberation of Arab women, causing a conflict to arise from the fact that French, her language of freedom, is the language of the colonizer who has oppressed her people for over a century. This paper will examine Djebar's conflict between expressing herself in French and feeling guilt over the fact that studying French made her a cultural exile from her origins.
Keywords: Assia Djebar, Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade, L'amour, la fantasia, Feminism, Postcolonialism, French Language, Middle Eastern Literature, Oppression
Topic(s):English
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 37-2
Location: OP 2121
Time: 1:30