Algerian Imprints: Ethical Space in the Work of Assia Djebar and Hélène Cixous

228 Pages·2015·3.55 MB·English

by  Brigitte Weltman-Aron

ALGERIAN
IMPRIN TS
ETHICAL SPACE IN THE WORK OF
ASSIA DJEBAR
HÉLÈNE CIXOUS
AND
Brigitte
Weltman-Aron
ALGERIAN IMPRINTS

a
Algerian Imprints
Ethical Space in the Work of
ASSIA DJEBAR and HÉLÈNE CIXOUS
Brigitte Weltman-Aron
Columbia University Press New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2015 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Weltman-Aron, Brigitte, 1961–
Algerian imprints: ethical space in the work of Assia Djebar and Hélène Cixous /
Brigitte Weltman-Aron.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-17256-1 (cloth: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-53987-6 (e-book)
1. Djebar, Assia, 1936—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Cixous, Hélène, 1937—
Criticism and interpretation. 3. Women and literature—Algeria. 4. Politics and
literature—Algeria. I. Title.
PQ3989.2.D57Z94 2015
843'.914—dc23
2014042955
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
Th is book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
cover design: Milenda Nan Ok Lee
References to Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor
Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the
manuscript was prepared.
For Dragan
In memory of Ghislaine

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Dissensus; or, Th e Political in the
Writings of Djebar and Cixous xi
PART ONE Colonial Demarcations
chapter one
Th e Gravity of the Body: Djebar’s and Cixous’s Textuality 3
chapter two
Going to School in French Algeria:
Th e Archive of Colonial Education 23
PART TWO Poetics of Language
chapter three
Vanishing Inscriptions: Djebar’s Poetics of the Trace 47
chapter four
Poetic Inc.: Language as Hospitality in Cixous 68
PART THREE Algerian War
chapter five
Th e Sound of Broken Memory: Djebar’s Women Fighters 87
chapter six
Allergy in the Body Politic: War in Cixous 113
Conclusion: Th e Logic of the Veil;
or, Th e Epistemology of Nonseeing 132
Notes 157
Bibliography 183
Index 197
viii Contents
Acknowledgments
Th is book could not have been written without the generous help of many
colleagues and friends. I am profoundly grateful to Deborah Amberson and
Alioune Sow for their invaluable comments and lucid suggestions for re-
visions and their unfailing support at various stages of writing this book.
I am also indebted to those who invited me to present my work about
Hélène Cixous or Assia Djebar and to the editors who included me in their
projects: Ralph Albanese and M. Martin Guiney, Isabelle Cata, Michael
Du Plessis, Florence Fix, Bernadette Fort, Catherine Jones, Jonathan Juda-
ken, Peggy Kamuf, Laurence Le Diagon-Jacquin, Eric Prenowitz, Najib
Redouane, Frédéric Regard, Martine Reid, Anna Rocca, Marta Segarra,
Georges Van den Abbeele, Samuel Weber, and David Wills. Grateful ac-
knowledgment is made to the University of Memphis and the University
of Florida for awarding me internal grants that helped me complete this
book. I particularly wish to thank the Department of Languages, Litera-
tures and Cultures at the University of Florida and Mary Watt for their
support of this project. In preparing the manuscript for publication, I
benefi ted from the experience and guidance of Wendy Lochner, Christine
Dunbar, and Susan Pensak, and I thank the three of them for their kind-
ness and their patience. It is my pleasure to thank the friends and family
members who were dedicated to my work: Dragan Kujundžić, who pro-
vided constant feedback and encouragement, as well as Shifra Armon,
Tace Hedrick, Anna Klobucka, William Little, Sarra Tlili, Bénédicte and
Marcel Weltman-Aron. I am particularly grateful to Réda Bensmaïa, Verena
ix