Feminism or Feminisms? Algerian Women Authors in Dialogue

This research examines the ways in which women’s interwar fiction in Algeria (1962/1991) advocates women’s emancipation on different grounds, sometimes according to opposing ideologies, to serve certain cultures and agendas. It unearths the intellectual, historical, and socio-political factors that contribute to such a diversity. This research draws on decolonial and transnational theories which develop a normative feminism for ‘other’ women that goes beyond the long-established antagonism: anti-imperialism/Feminism. This defines the ways in which models of emancipation for Algerian interwar women are not - and should not be - only associated with French and Western values. Devoted to the study of ten novels by six leading women authors, this thesis will argue that women’s interwar fiction offers four different models of womanhood, echoing the findings of contemporary studies by Algerian sociologists. Although a significant amount of research has been carried out on women’s representation in the Algerian novel, there has been no effort to audaciously address the ideological nature of the discourses communicated on women. Additionally, the existing literature has not sought to examine the effects of discourses on the textual. This is why part of this thesis consists in arguing that each model of womanhood develops - and is developed by - an apposite language of writing. The thesis unfolds in four analytical chapters. After an introduction to the historical, literary, and theoretical backgrounds to this research, each chapter is a case study and detailed narrative analysis which examines how a given perception of the feminine is inflected by a distinct system of ideals. The first chapter analyses two texts by Zhor Ounissi to explore the ‘traditionalist’ perception of women’s emancipation as theorised by Boutefnouchet. The chapter traces the origins of this conservative conception by establishing existing links with the written and preached teachings of the Algerian reformist school where Ounissi herself was a student. The second chapter looks at a selected set of texts by Hawa Djabali, Myriam Ben, and Nina Bouraoui to explore the ways in which women’s emancipation in these works is defended according to Western ethnocentric variants of ‘universal’ feminism. These variants are analysed in terms of the radical critique of communal values, conservative religions, and ‘patriarchal’ traditions as seen by Westerners. The third chapter is mainly devoted to the study of two novels by Aïcha Lemsine. It demonstrates how La Chrysalide and Ciel de Porphyre do not simply criticise patriarchal traditions as would do Western feminists. It argues that these texts propose a ‘reconciliatory’ approach to women’s emancipation in the sense that the traditional and the Western go hand in hand, to reproduce values belonging to Islamic socialism as conceived by Ben Bella and Boumedienne (1962/1979). The chapter traces the origins of this conception on the level of the literary by establishing links with colonial literatures, namely Djamila Debèche’s Leïla, jeune fille d’Algérie. The fourth chapter looks at three novels by Assia Djebar. Overall, it shows how intellectual and academic Djebar succeeds in formulating an authentic theory to account for gender inequality. The chapter focuses on how Djebar’s narrators criticise specifically Algerian forms of gender oppression. Additionally, it shows how female agency in these works remains attached to the author’s traditions, religion, and culture