People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research University Djilali Liabes –Sidi Bel-Abbès Faculty of Letters, Languages and Arts Department of English Woman Search for an Authentic Identity beyond Time and Space in Claire Messud’s The Last Life Thesis Submitted to the Department of English in the Candidacy for the Degree of “Doctorat” ‘in British, American and Commonwealth Studies Presented By Supervised By Mrs. Souhila BOUKHLIFA Prof. Fewzia BEDJAOUI Board of Examiners President Prof. Belabbes OUERRAD (Professor) University of Sidi Belabbes Supervisor Prof. Fewzia BEDJAOUI (Professor) University of Sidi Belabbes Internal Examiner Prof. M.Y.BOULENOUAR (Professor) University of Sidi Belabbes External Examiner Prof. Ilhem SERIR (Professor) Abou Bakr Belkaid University of Tlemcen External Examiner Dr. Omar AZZOUG (MCA) Abou Bakr Belkaid University of Tlemcen External Examiner Dr. Frid DAOUDI (MCA) (MCA) Abou Bakr Belkaid University of Tlemcen Academic Year: 2017-2018 Dedications To the memory of my cherished father Ali, may Allah rest his soul! To my much-loved mother and to my treasured daughter, Malek I Acknowledgments I am heartedly thankful to my supervisor Prof. Fewzia BEDJAOUI whose rich advice and support enabled me to realize this research thesis. I should also express my deepest gratitude and thanks to the jury members: Dr. Belabbes OURRAD, Prof. Mohamed, Y, BOULENOUAR, Prof. Ilhem SERRIR, Dr. Omar AZZOUG and Dr. Frid DAOUDI for accepting to read and to evaluate my work. I am very grateful to Mrs. Mebarka MENAOUAR, the teacher of Arts for her valuable advice. I am indebted to my colleague and Friend Mrs Hayat Mokeddem for her help at any time I felt in need I am very indebted to Prof. Tewfik BENABDELLAH, the Director of IPSIL Laboratory in ENPO of Oran for his encouragements and support. At last and not at least, my greatest gratitude goes to my darling mother whose memories have been a source of my inspiration. I owe singular thanks to my step-sister Keltoum and my sister Ibtissem who took care of my daughter all along the realisation of my research. This investigation could not come to the light if my siblings: Fatiha, Mokhtar, Sid Ahmed and Fatima have not supported me with their patience and encouragement. II Abstract Space and place have historically been the subject matter of geographers. Yet, due to the humanistic and the historical geographies, they have been attached to the human being since s/he seems to be the only responsible for their transformations, over time, from space to place or vice versa. Creating a personal geography then may depend on the individuals’ endeavours and drives. However, the lure towards a certain local which may differ from one to another depending on individual experiences contributes, to a great extent, to the de/construction of his/her identity. Claire Messud’s Bildungsroman The Last Life, for instance, stands for a clear image of three pieds-noirs generations and their dis/integration in a place, i.e. France. Their sudden departure and the end of the ‘French Algeria’ have caused a great despair among them when their paradise was officially lost in 1962. Because a structured and a traditional documentation could not be sufficient to understand why certain events have taken place in the past as they are still confusing generations over time, the aforementioned work seems to be an adequate means to reconsider them. Furthermore, when some of the pieds-noirs have accepted to testify and to talk about Algeria, in different documentaries and interviews, others preferred voicing their emotions and depression through their writings whereas other ones did it through different types of arts. Their Algeria, still exists as they are still querying about what remains of their memories which can be found, only, in the moans of their stories on the one hand and about what they can tell to their children about it on the other. The present work’s main objective then is to picture the extent to which Claire’s protagonist is affected by her ancestors’ past and how could their traumatic memories about a place transgress her mind’s and psych’s space. Because their Original Sin which is related to Augustine of Hippo’ s philosophy as it has been adapted by Albers Camus’s ‘La Chute’, ‘The Fall’, Sagesse has decided to detach herself from the other selves, i.e. her family. She has found in America her lure as she considers it a land of opportunity which may help her to seek a new identity. III List of Abbreviations and Acronyms AOS: Organisation de l’Armée Secrète, Organization of the Secret Army: it is a French political-military organization founded on 11 February 1961 to defend the French presence in Algeria by all means. ARS Académie Royale des Science, Royal Academy of Sciences ARTE: Association Relative à la Télévision Européenne, TV Channel AF: Association Française, French Association AFAS: Association Française pour l’Avancement des Sciences (French Association for the Advancement of Sciences. BE: Bureaux Arabes, Arabes Affices: they were a linking point between the French coloniser and the Algerian colonised. CA: Content Analysis: a research method. CWIC: Key Words In Context: a strategy in quantitative MCA. Doc: Documentary: used in the third Chapter ENA : Etoile Nord-Africaine, North-African Star: Missali el Hadj’s 1926 mouvement FLN: Front de Libération Nationale, Liberation National Front. Fr3: France Trois : TV Channel GPRA : Provitional Government of the Republic of Algeria, Gouvernement provisoire de la République d'Algérie : It included members from the FLN who were allowed to negotiate the Algerian independence with the French Government. KWIC : Key Words In Context : part of quantitative research in MCA MCA : Media Content Analyis : A multidisciplinary research method: A branch of CA MPA : Manifest du Peuple Algérien, Manifesto of the Algerian People, Farhat Abbes’ 1943Mouvement. NF: National Front: it is a French political party founded in 1972, originally known as the: National Front for French and chaired by Jean-Marie Le Pen PKK: Kurdistan Workers' Party, in Kurdish: (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan): A Kurdish organisation which struggled for the separation from Turkey. IV PPA: Parti du Peuple Algérien, Algerian People’s Party, Missali El-hadj’s ENA modified in1937. RCT: Rational Choice Theory PRCT: Political Rational Choice Theory. WAA: Women of Algiers in their Apartment: A painting Wff: Well-formed formula: a formal abbreviation V List of Figures Figure I.1: The Chronological Passage of Time in the Human Inner…………….. ..28 Figure I.2 Examples about John Stilgos and William Pronon’s View to Landscape... 31 Figure II.1: Bureaux Arabes (BA)……………………………………………………60 Figure I.2: Women of Algiers in their Apartments…………………………………...68 Figure. I.3: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, ‘The Turkish Bath (1862)………...….69 Figure. I. 4: View of Algiers in the 17th Century……………………………….……71 Figure I.5: Representation of the City of Al- Djazair: Panorama d’Alger 1832……..73 Figure :I. 6: Map of Algeria and Tunisia…………………………………………….80 Figure I. 7: Comparison of the Coloniser’s Impact on the Indigenous Population…...88 Figure III.1 The Mayor of Marseille, Gaston Deffere’s Declaration………………..116 Figure III. .3. Pieds-noirs, to the See! ..........................................................................117 Fig III.2: An Acculturated Pieds-Noirs Woman………………………………….…118 Figure VI. 1: The Last Life’s Front Page……………………………………………184 VI List of Tables Table I.1 Anna Freud’s main Defence Mechanisms……………………………...….23 List of Graphs Graph II.1: Comparison of the European and the indigenous’ income by 1954….….81 Graph III. 1: Comparison of pieds-Noirs Names’ Determination…………………..112 Graph III.2 Comaparison of the Pieds-Noirs’ Occupational Roles in France ….…..113 Graph III.3: Sub-divisions of the pieds-noirs’ Occupational Roles in France…...…113 Graph III. 4 Comparison of the pieds-Noirs’ Physical Appearance in Doc A ……..114 Graph III.6 Comparison of Pieds-Noirs’ Physical Appearance in Doc B… …….…115 Graph III. 7Comparison of the Pied-noirs’ Psyches in both Documentaries……....135 VII Table of contents Dedication………………………………… …………………………………………..I Acknowledgements………………………..………………………………………..…II Abstract………………………………………… …………………………………....III List of Acronyms…………………………………………… ……………………....III List of Figures……………………………… ……………………………………...IV List of Tables…………………………………………………………………….……V List of Graphs……………………………………………………………...………....VI Coding List………………………………………………………………..………....VII Table of Contents……………………………………………………...................... VIII General Iintroduction..................................................................................................1 Chapter One: Space, Place and Identity Re/Construction over Time I.1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….9 I.2. Michel Foucault’s the Archaeology of Knowledge (1971) .....................................11 I.3. Political Rational Choice Theory…………………………………………………12 I.4 Archetypes and psyches through Different Perspectives ............................................... 20 I.5What about Post/Memory ...................................................................................................... 26 I.6Space, Place and Time .......................................................................................................... .29 I.7The Power of Landscape........................................................................................................ 31 I.8Time, Place and Identity ......................................................................................................