Polygraphies: Francophone Women Writing Algeria Book

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction. The "Witness Stand: "Where the Truth Lies 1

Part I The Autobiographical Springboard

1 Le moi à plusieurs reprises: From Confession to Testimony in the Autobiographical Writings of Hélène Cixous and Assia Djebar 27

2 La singularité de l'altérité: Self-Portraiture and the Other in Maïssa Bey 46

Part II Takeoff Points

3 La terre maternelle: Algeria and the Mother in the "Work of Marie Cardinal, Hélène Cixous, and Assia Djebar 61

4 "La célébration d'une terre-mère": Albert Camus and Algeria according to Maïssa Bey and Assia Djebar 86

Part III Embodiments

5 Écrire les maux: Hélène Cixous and "Writing the Body over Time 99

6 Sexualités et sensualités: Corporeal Configurations in the Work of Maïssa Bey, Assia Djebar, Malika Mokeddem, and Leïla Sebbar 109

Part IV Reverberations

7 Ruptures intimes: Sentimental Splitting in the Work of Assia Djebar 129

8 Lourds retours: Coming Back to Algeria in Malika Mokeddem's L'Interdite 140

9 Fille de harki: Relating to the Father, Country, and Religion in the Writing of Zahia Rahmani 151

10 Fabulation et imagination: Women, Nation, and Identification in Maïssa Bey's Cette fille-là 164

Conclusion. Mass in A Minor: Putting Algeria on the Map 186

Notes 197

Bibliography 215

Index 227