Memories of French Colonialism in French and Algerian Literatures
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1 Performing Gender, Performing the Past: Memories of French Colonialism in French and Algerian Literatures Post-1962 Beatrice Amelia Ivey Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of PhD. The University of Leeds, School of Languages, Cultures and Societies. December 2017. The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgment. The right of Beatrice Ivey to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by Beatrice Ivey in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988. 2 Acknowledgments I am deeply thankful for the generosity and good humour of Professor Max Silverman and Professor Margaret Atack. Their advice, support, and expertise have been invaluable for the completion of this thesis. Within the University of Leeds, I am grateful for the feedback and helpful insights from a great number of people, in particular, Dr Nina Wardleworth, Dr Claire Eldridge, and Dr Kamal Salhi. I would also like to thank Professor Kate Marsh at the University of Liverpool, who kindly read and offered her thoughts on some of my work. I extend my heartfelt thanks a wonderful community of postgraduate researchers who have been indispensable cheerleaders over the past three years, especially Dr Ikhlas Abdul Hadi, Andrea Basso, Dr Adam Roberts, Aishah Mubaraki, and Dr Laura-Lucia Rossi. Thank you Alhoudayfi Mohamed, Sarah Evans, Aisha Rahman, and Monique Singleton for giving me a place to stay while attending conferences and completing research in London and Paris. My profound gratitude goes, as ever, to my family: Thom, Judith, Paul, Rebecca, Stephen, Harriet, Rob, Rufus, Howard, Beryl, and John, who is dearly missed. This doctoral research was possible thanks to a Leeds University 110 Anniversary Scholarship. 3 Abstract This thesis examines examples of post-1962 cultural production in French (literature, theatre, film) from France and Algeria which contribute to the cultural memory of French colonialism in Algeria and its various transnational legacies. It develops recent theories of the transnational and transcultural nature of memory, that I call ‘connective’ memory, to define the ways in which memories are not simply discrete or self-contained but can forge connections with other histories and remembering subjects. The major focus of the thesis will be to show how ‘connective’ cultural memory, as an act of cultural imagination, is gendered. Although memory studies and gender theory have both undergone ‘performative turns’ in the last three decades, there has been no sustained effort to consider the intersecting performativity of gender and memory. The thesis is divided into five chapters. After an introduction to the historical and theoretical background to this thesis, each chapter is a case study and detailed narrative analysis which explores how the interactions of memory and gender in French and Algerian cultural production are inflected in different ways with various transnational dynamics and political outcomes. The first chapter analyses Assia Djebar’s cinematic and written works to demonstrate performative strategies for articulating Algerian women’s memories outside nationalist forms of commemoration. The second chapter shifts the focus onto how gender can be a framework for the transcolonial movement of memory, in this case through an analysis of Hélène Cixous’s transposition of colonial memory from Algeria to India. The third chapter draws attention to the implicit naturalisation of masculine perspectives in certain ‘connective’ narratives of memory via a close literary analysis of biographical and fictional works by Ahmed Kalouaz. The fourth chapter examines Malika Mokeddem’s performative reinvention of gendered norms in her novels 4 set in the Mediterranean, where memory is gendered but plays a role in highlighting political responsibility in the present. The final chapter analyses three novels by Nina Bouraoui in which memory, as an affective engagement with the past, can be acquired and produced through performative articulations of masculinity and femininity. Overall, this thesis suggests that performative gender is central, not additional, to our understandings of ‘connective’ forms of cultural memory. 5 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................2 Abstract ........................................................................................................................3 Table of Contents .........................................................................................................5 Introduction: Gendering Connective Memory 0.1 Introduction .................................................................................................8 0.2 Remembering and Forgetting Colonialism ................................................ 10 0.3 Gender and Colonial Memory ................................................................... 12 0.4 From Competitive to ‘Connective’ Memory ............................................... 19 0.5 Feminist Memory Work ............................................................................. 23 0.6 Performative Turns .................................................................................... 29 0.7 Thesis Overview ........................................................................................ 35 Chapter One: Haunting and Performative Mourning in Assia Djebar’s ‘écriture de cinéma’ 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 39 1.2 ‘Écriture de cinéma’ ................................................................................... 46 6 1.3 Zoulikha’s Haunting Monologues ............................................................. 63 1.4 Performative Mourning ............................................................................ 75 1.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 83 Chapter Two: Gendering Transnational Memory in Writings by Hélène Cixous 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 85 2.2 Reading Cixous Transnationally ................................................................ 87 2.3 Remembering the Colonial Family ............................................................ 96 2.4 From Algeriad to Indiade .........................................................................108 2.5 Gendering Gandhi ....................................................................................122 2.6 Conclusion ..............................................................................................129 Chapter Three: Ahmed Kalouaz and the Fraternity of Connective Memory 3.1 Introduction ..............................................................................................132 3.2 Fraternity as a ‘mnemonic form’ ..............................................................137 3.3 Postmemorial Family Narratives ..............................................................148 3.4 ‘Il y a d’autres Geronimos’ .......................................................................166 3.5 Conclusion ..............................................................................................176 7 Chapter Four: Malika Mokeddem’s Memory in the Postcolonial Sea 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 178 4.2 Gendering the Postcolonial Sea ............................................................... 185 4.3 Bodies at Sea ........................................................................................... 196 4.4 Desiring Memory .................................................................................... 206 4.5 ‘La mère-mer’ ......................................................................................... 219 4.6 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 225 Chapter Five: Gender and Affective Engagement in Nina Bouraoui’s Memory Narrative 5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 227 5.2 Gender Performativity and Affective Engagement .................................... 233 5.3 Affective Environments: Beaches and Earthquakes ................................. 247 5.4 Transferring ‘Connective’ Memory ......................................................... 259 5.5 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 272 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 273 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 279 Filmography .................................................................................................. 322 8 Introduction: Gendering Connective Memory 0.1 Introduction This thesis focuses on two intersecting concepts; on the one hand, the fluid ‘connectivity’ of memory narratives in cultural production and, on the other hand, the performative gendering of cultural memory. The notion of ‘connective’