Autobiography and Independence
Self and Identity in North African Writing in French
Published on 1. April 2003
Book
Hardback
408 pages
978-0-85323-659-7 (ISBN)
Description
This book offers an in-depth study of the autobiographical writings of four twentieth-century writers from North Africa, Assia Djebar, Mouloud Feraoun, Abdelkebir Khatibi and Albert Memmi, as they explore issues of language, identity and the individual's relationship to history. The book places these writers in a clearly defined theoretical context, introducing and contextualising each of the four through the application of postcolonial studies and literary theory on autobiography linked to close textual reading of their works. Avoiding both psychoanalytical theory and approaches concerned primarily with the writer's 'testimony value', Kelly concentrates instead on the poetic and literary qualities of each author's work, dwelling on the politics and poetics of identity, as well as the ethics and aesthetics of this literature. She includes clear discussions of key terms such as 'postcolonial', 'Francophone', and 'autobiography', which current academic discourse has rendered very complex and even opaque. The book includes a fascinating photograph of two stone tablets inscribed with Punic and Numidian scripts, now held in the British Museum, which Assia Djebar writes about at length in one of the texts studied in the book.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Liverpool
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 163 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-85323-659-7 (9780853236597)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Debra Kelly is Professor Emerita in French and Francophone Studies at the University of Westminster and is currently Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Language Acts and Worldmaking at King's College London.
Content
Acknowledgements
Copyright Acknowledgements
Introduction: A Place in the Word
1 Life/Writing in the Colonial and Postcolonial Contexts
Autobiography, Autobiographical Expression, Fictions of Identity
Postcolonial Studies, The Post Colonial Subject and Motivated Reading Studies
2 Mouloud Feraoun: Life Story, Life-Writing, History
Naming the Poor Man's Son: Identity and the Colonised Subject in 'Le Fils du pauvre'
Poverty, Knowledge and Self-Knowledge
A Dialogue with Self and Others: 'Lettres a ses amis'
Witnessing History, the Self as Witness: Journal 1955-1962. p.
3 Albert Memmi: Fictions of Identity and the Quest for Truth
Negotiating a Jewish Identity: the Stationary Nomad
Poverty, Self-Knowledgeand Political Knowledge in 'La Statue de sel' p.
The Self as Writer in 'Le Scorpion ou la confession imaginaire'
4 Abdelkebir Khatibi: The Deciphering of Memory and the Potential of Postcolonial Identity
Writing and the Multiple Discourses of Selfhood
Memory, Myth and the Postcolonial Subject in 'La Memoire tatouee'
Writing strategies and the Deciphering of a 'Tattoed Memory'
5 Assia Djebar: History, Selfhood and the Possession of Knowledge
The (Re-) Possession of Knowledge and the Relationship to History in 'L'Amour, la fantasia'
Myth, Metaphor and the Power of Language
Exile, the History or Writing and the Quest for Liberation in 'Vaste est la Prison'
Love and Self-knowledge
The History of writing
Knowledge and Selfhood
Conclusion: A Place in the World
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Copyright Acknowledgements
Introduction: A Place in the Word
1 Life/Writing in the Colonial and Postcolonial Contexts
Autobiography, Autobiographical Expression, Fictions of Identity
Postcolonial Studies, The Post Colonial Subject and Motivated Reading Studies
2 Mouloud Feraoun: Life Story, Life-Writing, History
Naming the Poor Man's Son: Identity and the Colonised Subject in 'Le Fils du pauvre'
Poverty, Knowledge and Self-Knowledge
A Dialogue with Self and Others: 'Lettres a ses amis'
Witnessing History, the Self as Witness: Journal 1955-1962. p.
3 Albert Memmi: Fictions of Identity and the Quest for Truth
Negotiating a Jewish Identity: the Stationary Nomad
Poverty, Self-Knowledgeand Political Knowledge in 'La Statue de sel' p.
The Self as Writer in 'Le Scorpion ou la confession imaginaire'
4 Abdelkebir Khatibi: The Deciphering of Memory and the Potential of Postcolonial Identity
Writing and the Multiple Discourses of Selfhood
Memory, Myth and the Postcolonial Subject in 'La Memoire tatouee'
Writing strategies and the Deciphering of a 'Tattoed Memory'
5 Assia Djebar: History, Selfhood and the Possession of Knowledge
The (Re-) Possession of Knowledge and the Relationship to History in 'L'Amour, la fantasia'
Myth, Metaphor and the Power of Language
Exile, the History or Writing and the Quest for Liberation in 'Vaste est la Prison'
Love and Self-knowledge
The History of writing
Knowledge and Selfhood
Conclusion: A Place in the World
Notes
Bibliography
Index