La dichotomie de l’espace dans L’Amour, la fantasia d’Assia Djebar

Abstract

Assia Djebar’s literary work is based on a dichotomy of space that reflects the gender segregation in Muslim society where women are confined to the domestic space while men occupy the public space. By analyzing Djebar’s autobiographical novel Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade (1985), we aim to consider the male-female binary opposition and its migration to a hybrid space centered on the French language – the language of the former colonizer. This generates what the author calls her androgynous state representing, in a Platonic sense, the union of masculine and feminine. Djebar argues that the French language allows her to cross the line that separates the sexes in Muslim society. Thus, this type of writing that refuses bipolarity generates a linguistic wandering characterized by plurality and movement.

Keywords

• Assia Djebar
• masculin-feminin
• Algerian Francophone literature
• French language
• Muslim society