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Women Writing War focuses on the life-writing of the moudjahidate, the women veterans of the Algerian war of independence (1954-1962). The author offers close readings of memoir, testimonial, poetry and drama by Jacqueline Guerroudj, Louisette Ighilahriz, Anna Gréki, Zhor Zerari and Myriam Ben, all of whom are documented moudjahidate and self-identify as Algerian. Reading their life-writing through the prism of theories of intertextuality, 'minor' literature and the dialectics of memory and trauma, the author explores the relationship between writing, resistance and political action. Since they compose their work in the first-person voice in the context of the Algerian war, this book argues that their writing operates collectively as a form of counterdiscourse, opening up a textual space where experiences that were previously silenced or marginalized might be expressed.
List of contents
CONTENTS: Contexts - Re-membering War: Memoir and Testimonial by Jacqueline Guerroudj and Louisette Ighilahriz - Poetry and Intertextuality: Anna Gréki's and Zhor Zerari's Autobiographical Poems - Toward a Minor Theatre: Myriam Ben's Algerian Antigone
About the author
Caroline E. Kelley holds a D.Phil. from the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages at the University of Oxford. She is an independent scholar and a lecturer at the Institut Catholique de Paris (Faculté des Lettres) Paris, France.
Summary
Women Writing War focuses on the life-writing of the moudjahidate, the women veterans of the Algerian war of independence (1954–1962). The author offers close readings of memoir, testimonial, poetry and drama by Jacqueline Guerroudj, Louisette Ighilahriz, Anna Gréki, Zhor Zerari and Myriam Ben, all of whom are documented moudjahidate and self-identify as Algerian. Reading their life-writing through the prism of theories of intertextuality, ‘minor’ literature and the dialectics of memory and trauma, the author explores the relationship between writing, resistance and political action. Since they compose their work in the first-person voice in the context of the Algerian war, this book argues that their writing operates collectively as a form of counterdiscourse, opening up a textual space where experiences that were previously silenced or marginalized might be expressed.
