Le moi multiple ou l'ecriture de l'exil chez Assia Djebar, Leila Sebbar et Malika Mokeddem.

摘要

This dissertation analyzes selected works by Assia Djebar (L'Amour, la fantasia; Oran, Langue morte; Femmes d'Alger dans leur appartement and Ces Voix qui m'assiegent), Leila Sebbar ( Lettres parisiennes; Sherazade: 17 ans, brune, frisee, les yeux verts) and Malika Mokeddem (Les Hommes qui marchent; L'Interdite ). All of these texts can be defined as post-colonial, in part because they give a voice to the voiceless and offer a discourse of resistance. They are closely tied to French colonisation, decolonisation and their legacy, i.e. the Algerian War of Liberation, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in post-war Algeria and, finally, the immigration of Maghrebian nationals to France. Written in French---the language of the former colonialist power---by Algerian nationals (or, in the case of Sebbar and Mokeddem, French-Algerian nationals), they are products of colonialist politics and culture revolving around the pivotal issues of exile, nomadism, metissage and---last but not least---identity. My thesis aims to show that these texts use thematic strategies to circumscribe demands for identity. I argue that in the case of Mokeddem and Sebbar, the concepts of nomadism, exile and metissage serve as recurrent tropes, themes and metaphorical agents that help circumscribe the overriding issue of identity. In Assia Djebar's case, autobiography and the rewriting of a French and male-centered Algerian historiography from a feminine point of view are the all-empowering devices used to situate and define the predominantly female "self" and herself within the historical setting of colonisation and post-colonisation. The authors themselves are cultural and linguistic metisses (in Sebbar's case also biological metisses). Growing up in colonial Algeria they attended French colonial school and left Algeria as adults. Therefore, it is not a surprise that their writings should address the complex issues of identity and exile. And yet, identity is seldom addressed directly in the writings or even blatantly refuted in the case of Sebbar. However, reading these novels and short stories, the search for selfhood emerges as a critical factor in the texts as well as in the writing process itself, as highlighted by the fact that most of these works are indeed highly autobiographical.