REDIRECTING AL-NAZAR: CONTEMPORARY TUNISIAN WOMEN NOVELISTS RETURN THE GAZE A Dissertation submitted to Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Arabic Language, Literature and Linguistics By Douja Mariem Mamelouk, M.A. Washington, DC April 13, 2010 © Copyright by Douja Mariem Mamelouk All Rights Reserved May 2010 ii REDIRECTING AL-NAZAR: CONTEMPORARY TUNISIAN WOMEN NOVELISTS RETURN THE GAZE Douja Mariem Mamelouk, Ph.D. Thesis Advisor: Elliott Colla, Ph.D. ABSTRACT The notion of an objectifying gaze, as described and elaborated in feminist and psychoanalytic theory, may have its correspondent in Arab culture in the concept of al-nazar (vision, gaze or ―beholding‖) or perhaps also in the evil eye. In many contemporary Tunisian novels written by women, female protagonists question masculinity and the gendering of Tunisian/Arab society. Three Tunisian women novelists in particular, Amel Mokhtar, Massouda Boubakr and Fethia Hechmi give special attention to visual aspects, such as the gaze, the nazar and the evil eye, when describing male characters. Making use of concepts of the gaze, al-„ayn and al-nazar, I argue that it is no accident that Tunisian women novelists would re-appropriate al-nazar in order to question concepts of masculinity in Tunisian/Arab culture. Instead of lowering the gaze, they create fictional female characters who dare to look back at men and define them through the potency of their female eyes. While looking upon men and masculine behavior, the novelists redefine their perception of male characters as contextually formulated within Tunisian/Arab society. As the female characters take on the gaze and refuse to lower it, they redefine and effectively repossess the nazar. This study challenges the notion proposed by Hanita Brand that mutuality of the gaze does not exist in contemporary Arab literature. Amel Mokhtar‘s Nakhab al-hayat (1993), al-Kursi al- hazzaz (2005) and Maestro (2006) serve to demonstrate the female narrators‘ attempt to establish mutual gaze with male characters, which often leads to pleasure, while exploring conflicting iii gender relationships. However, current theories of the gaze prove inadequate in the examination of Massouda Boubakr‘s Laylat al-ghiyab (1995), Trushqana (1999), and Wada„an Hammurabi (2003) while Arabo-Islamic concepts of al-„ayn allow for a greater nuance of analysis. Boubakr ascends from the personal realm to regional and national levels, asserting that all Arab men are marginal. Finally, Fethia Hechmi captures the masculine through the evil eye in Hafiyat al-ruh (2005), Minna Mawwal (2007) and Maryam tasqut min yad Allah (2009) and condemns men to impotence through female characters. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank my committee members, Dr. Elliott Colla, Dr. Clarissa Burt and Dr. Rim Bassiouney for taking the time to read and comment on my work. I also wish to thank the staff and my professors in the Department of Arabic at Georgetown University, especially, Carolyn Reed who is an amazing assistant, Dr. Felicitas Opwis, Dr. Amin Bonnah, Dr. Irfan Shahid, Dr. Margaret Nydell and Dr. Karin Ryding for their encouragement and support. I am also indebted to Dr. Roger Allen who took the time to comment meticulously on my second chapter when I needed it the most. In addition, I wish to thank the American Institute for Maghribi Studies (AIMS) and Dr. Lawrence Michalak, director of the Center for Maghribi Studies (CEMAT) in Tunis, for providing me with the financial support to spend nine months in Tunis conducting research, interviewing authors, collecting materials, consulting local libraries and simply treasure hunting in the city of Tunis. I appreciated the assistance of Jean Fontaine at the Institut des Belles Lettres Arabes (IBLA) and the women‘s research center (CREDIF) in Tunis. Mohamed Bennani, head of the Bennani Foundation library, has been an amazingly resourceful documentalist and I wish to express my gratitude to him. I am indebted to Mohamed El May for providing me with unique manuscripts of novels and literary journals, to Dr. Lilia Labidi for her time, input and positivity and to Tunisian novelist Alia Tabai for sharing her writings and opinions with me. This project would have not been possible without the encouragement and help of my friends Frank Lawrence, Father Solomon Sara, S.J., Erin Johnston, Sally Johnson, Hussein and Yasmin Hajbi, Nassima Neggaz, Amira BouAllagui and Ines Ben Mokhtar and my aunt Tess Markus. My biggest thanks go to my mother who coached me throughout my thesis, took time out of her life to help me with my children, edit my work and engaged me in animated debates. It may have taken me over 30 years to realize this, but you are an amazing woman, mother and scholar. Thank you. I am very grateful to my father as well, for he has been my source of strength for many years, and to my husband and my daughter, who ―monitored‖ the progress of my thesis daily. And finally, I dedicate this thesis to the memory of my grandmother Martha Louise Markus and to my living aunt Malika Mamelouk: Rabbi ifadlik! v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract…………………………………………………………………………….……..iii Acknowledgments ………………………………………………...………………..……v Note on Transliteration …………………………………………………..…………......vii Introduction………………………………………...……………………........................1 Chapter 1: Women Writers: From Silence to Talking Back……………………....……9 Chapter 2: Pleasure and Mutuality of the Gaze in Amel Mokthar’s Novels…………..52 Chapter 3: Al-nazir and al-manzur ilayh in Massouda Boubakr’s Novels: Marginal Men in the Spotlight ………………………………………...........99 Chapter 4: When the Female Evil Eye Strikes: Destruction of the Masculine in Fethia Hechmi’s Novels……………...……..154 Conclusion………………………………………………………………..………...….. 207 Selected Bibliography………………………………………………………………….. 217 vi NOTE ON TRANSLITERATIONS In this work, I spelled the names of authors the way they spell their names and not according to transliteration rules. For example: Amal Mukhtar is written Amel Mokhtar. For the writers and scholars from the Maghrib cited in this work, I have kept their names in accordance with the way they spell them in French. As for the names of places in Tunisia, I have either transliterated them in Tunisian dialect or have kept their French inscriptions. I use the International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES) for personal names, places and titles of books. I have attempted to keep Tunisian proverbs, names and expressions as close as possible to their pronunciation in Tunisian dialect. vii INTRODUCTION When I arrived in Tunisia in August 2007 and became acquainted with the intellectual circles of downtown Tunis, I announced to my Tunisian interlocutors—mostly men—the purpose of my visit: to research Tunisian women‘s novels. Reactions were mixed and contradictory. While one group told me that ―women‘s literature‖ does not exist in Tunisia and attempted to dissuade me from pursuing my interest, another group found it appealing, as the topic is surrounded by animated debates worldwide, although not enough has been written on it. After consulting a variety of women‘s novels, I selected the three most published novelists1 in order to assemble a corpus worthy of study: Amel Mokhtar‘s Nakhab al-hayat (A Toast to Life 1993), al-Kursiy al-hazzaz (The Rocking Chair 2005) and Maestro (Maestro 2007). Massouda Boubakr‘s Laylat al-ghiyab (The Night of Absence 1997), Trushqana (1999) and Wada‟an Hammurabi (A Farewell to Hammurabi 2003). Fethia Hechmi‘s Hafiyat al-ruh (At the Edge Of the Soul 2005), Minna Mawwal (2007) and Maryam tasqut min yad Allah (Maryam Falls from the Hand of God 2009). To my knowledge, no one has written an in-depth study of these novels. Furthermore, there is no study that looks at this body of texts through the lens of al-nazar (vision, gaze or ―beholding‖).2 The novels of Mokhtar, Boubakr and Hechmi, though different in form have a common thread: they put male characters under a microscope. While examining masculine behavior, the novelists redefine their own perception of male characters as contextually formulated within 1 Hafidha Guesmi has the most publications (seven). However, her novels (two of which she names riwa-qissa) are short (30-50 pp.), resembling long short stories rather than novels, which is why I disregarded her texts for this study. 2 The Arabo-Islamic concept of al-nazar as defined by Ibn al-Qattan al-Fasi mutes the power relation between the nazir (the one who looks) and the manzur ilayh (the one who is looked at). However, Timothy Mitchell in Colonising Egypt (1991) emphasizes ―the risks of exposure‖ to the gaze, and proposes that Europeans confused „ayn with the evil eye, while in Arabic, „ayn is eye, not the evil eye (86). 1 Tunisian/Arab society, which may (or may not) cause readers to question their perceptions. Equally important, these writers give prominence to visual apprehension, such as an objectifying gaze rooted in some psychoanalytic and feminist theory, the Arab concepts of al-nazar and al- „ayn (eye) or the evil eye when describing male characters. The objective of this study is to explore the possibility of the use of al-nazar as a theoretical tool. Consequently, I analyze these texts in order to examine the depiction of the masculine through the lens of the nazar, which is, in fact, active, transformative and redefining. I propose that female characters re-appropriate al- nazar—both maintaining it and redirecting it—for the potency of al-nazar resides in its duration as it is capable of undermining identity or causing physical harm when focused on its object. It may cause lust according to Ibn al-Qattan al-Fasi (al-Nazar fi ahkam al-nazar bi-hassat al-basar 1996) or, project the evil eye. I argue that some Tunisian women novelists re-appropriate the nazar as a means of questioning concepts of masculinity in Tunisian/Arab culture.