1

General introduction:

The appearance of Algerian literature

is related to the appearance of what was known

by Renaissance in the Arab world. Renaissance is

a movement started by the French invasion of

Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte on 1798 where

the French army brought with him a team of

scientists, philosophers, and writers (more

than140 persons) and the type-machine (typed in

Arabic), also they built a big library with what

they brought from France and added what they

took from the Egyptian libraries. The spread of

Renaissance is one of the main causes that led

to the birth of the Algerian literature in

addition to the new era of travelling and

discoveries. The Algerian and Middle East

Arabian literature have been both influenced by

the European modern literature and the

industrial revolution (translation, typing and

production…). They started by giving life to the

ancient books and novels.

The Postcolonial period in Algeria also

influenced the Algerian literature, giving birth

15

to a new modern literature, a strong and wide

spread for both writers and literary production.

The Algerian postcolonial period

raised some questions about the Algerian Novel,

since it was a period of Algerian writers using

French language and also a period of women

writers who faced many obstacles while

publishing their writings, here we have to ask

about the Algerian novel, what is it? And can we

include novels written in French language by

Algerian writers to the Algerian Literature? And

With the emergence of women movements and women

writers, how did the Algerian women writers

managed to create a place among the Algerian

novel and literature? And how could their

writings contribute in feminine movements.

1. Introduction:

Like the other Arab countries, Algeriawas a part of the Ottoman Empire but just by

form. Algeria had its own politics, rules, and

its powerful navy in the Mediterranean Sea. The

relationship between Algeria and the Ottoman

Empire was a relation of cooperation not

15

colonialism. Ottoman Empire started to full a

part while the avidness of the European world

started.

2. The French invasion:

France exploited the full a part ofAlgerian navy in the battle of Navarine in 1827

in order to take its wealth, to control, and to

expand. France considered The Fly Whisk Incident

as a direct reason to invade Algeria while the

invisible causes were:

a.The military and technological excellence at

that time.

b.The cousin of Algiers Wali was the

responsible of NAVARINE’s battle (he had no

military experiences).

That led to the quick full a part of Algiers.

2.1. After the invasion:

By its coming, the first thing thatFrance did, is trying to erase the Algerian

identity by making the Algerian people

illiterate and poor. This policy led to great

dangerous results, thousands of people were

15

killed just to spread terror among Algerians,

others were recruited by force and under arm

threaten to help the French new government

established in Algeria, Algerian wealth

vanished, diseases and famine spread.

2.2. Algerian people’s reaction:

Since the first day of invasion,popular revolutions started all over Algeria, it

started in the east with the lead of Ahmed Bay,

the west with El Emir Abd El Kader, Chikh El

Mokrani, once a revolution fail, others appeared

in other regions. The French began their

occupation of Algiers in 1830, starting with a

landing in Algiers. As occupation turned into

colonization, Kabylie remained the only region

independent of the French government. Pressure

on the region increased, and the will of her

people to resist and defend Kabylie increased as

well.

2.3. The beginning of political work:

15

After the death of all revolutions,

there was a calm, it was the calm that precede

the tempest, a new kind of resistance appeared

which was the political resistance by founding

and creating political parties and associations,

both of them had his goal, the first political

while the second had a religious goal, in order

to get the independence, but the results was

formalistic with no spirit.

2.4. The emergence of the Association of MuslimScholars:

Also called Association of Algerian

Reformist Ulama, founded in 1931 and formally

organized on May 5, 1935, by Sheikh ʿAbd al-

Hamid ben Badis, was heavily influenced by the

views of the Muslim jurist and reformer Muḥammad

ʿAbduh (1849–1905). It adopted his belief that

Islam was essentially a flexible faith, capable

of adapting to the modern world if freed of its

non-Islamic and vulgar accretions. The Algerian

Ulama thus conducted widespread campaigns

against the superstition and maraboutism that

had become common among the public, they also

implemented ʿAbduh’s belief in the efficacy of

15

modern education by attempting to reform the

antiquated educational system. More than 200

schools were opened, the largest at Constantine

with about 300 students, and the possibility of

a Muslim university was introduced but never

realized. The Algerian Ulama stressed the

importance of studying Arabic, the language of

Algerian Muslims, and fought for its obligatory

instruction in Algerian elementary and secondary

schools. The organization’s channels of

communication included Al-Shihāb (The Meteor) and

Al-Baṣāʾir (Clairvoyance), a religious weekly, both

published in Arabic. Association of Muslim

Scholars was founded by great Algerian Muslim

scientists like: Abd El Hamid Ben Badiss , El

Bachir El Ibrahimi, Tayyab El Okbi, and others

(ALLAH’s mercy up on them), it was an Islamic

movement based on Quran and Sunnah. This Islamic

association had distal goals and immediate

goals, the first were to prepare a new educated

generation that will take on its shoulders the

responsibility of getting freedom and that’s

what happened, while the second were to riddance

15

Algerian society from any blemish about his

identity and religion. 1

2.5. Main causes of the war of November 1st 1954:

All what we have said before was just

the preparation for the war of November 1st

1954,in addition to this, the frustration of all

the political parties to get freedom peacefully

while the life conditions of Algerian society

were in decadence. May 8th 1945 was an official

answer from the colonial (45000 persons were

killed in 8 hours) to the Algerian people, then,

this last realized that freedom is not a gift

but they should take it by force. Also, the

military tactics that was followed proved its

failure which was the direct and open war and

the diminution of arms and number.2

2.6. The preparation of war:

The Algerian war was not a revolution

of socialism of the nation, it didn’t came from

nothing but from persons who were in mosques and

had high level of education, who were students

1 www.mdn.dz2 Martin Windrow, The Algerian War 1954–62, (London: Osprey Publishing, 1997), pp.17-19.

15

in Muslims Scientists Association (distal goal

was realized), as Mustapha Ben Boiled, Didouche

Mourad, Krim Belkacem, El Arbi Ben M’hidi and

Rabah Bitat… The last touches of preparation for

the war of freedom between the 10th and 24th of

October 1954 in Algiers by the six commissions

(this commission was composed by six members).

They discussed several important issues like:

a.The foundation of F.L.N and organize the

army.

b.They choose Monday, November 1st 1954 as a

date for shooting the first bullet.3

2.8. The explosion of the war:

The start of the war was with no more

than 1200 militants with W400 piece of arm and

few traditional bombs. They were attacking just

sensitive and strategic places all over Algeria

(30 operations) left 10 kills, more than 23

wounded and hundred millions frank of material

loss. In the first period of war Algeria lost

the best of her sons like Ben Abd El Malek

Ramadan, Krim Belkacem, Badji Mokhtar, Didouche

Mourad… 3 Ibid.

15

Algerian people gave the war all what

they had; bodies and souls in order to live

free. They fought and resisted against the

colonial.

The main thing that was very obvious was

the educated class with what they wrote and said

in poetry and prose in order to push Algerians

to join war, which was clear in the statement of

the six commissions.4

3. Algerian society during the French

colonization:

The first thing that the French

colonial did was to defeat and erase the

Algerian identity by destroying mosques and

schools. Also, they depended on the policy of

segregation in order to have a separated

society, and that what happened in the Algerian

society, it was separated between who wanted to

kick out the French colonial and get freedom and

who wanted France to stay (Algeria = France). In

4 Statement: November 1st 1954, teach war wordpress.com/Algerian Revolution, accessed on 12/04/2014.

15

general, Algerians suffered from diseases,

illiteracy and oppression.

4. The Algerian literature during the French

colonization:

The Algerian literature during the

French colonization, especially the period of

1950’s since the period witnessed the Algerian

war, was divided into two kinds, one writing in

French language supporting the colonial, while

the other was against the oppression writing in

Arabic language.

Algerian literature was related to an

important period, a period of resistance and

revolution, it was influenced by the colonial

literature, but it tried to be independent and

fight the idea that Algeria is France.

It emerged by a group of literariness who

were writing in French language expressing the

Algerian society in poetry, novels, theatre, and

newspapers. They wanted to explode the French

language, so they founded and created an

Algerian language with new point of view and new

philosophy.

15

When Algerian writers started to express

themselves with the language of the colonial,

especially between 1945 and 1956 (realism

period), they felt that they were far away from

them mother tongue. According to Albert Memmi in

his book le portrait de colonisé, bilingualism in the

colonized country causes bouleversement in the

psychological balance of human. Also according

to Memmi the colonized country’s language looks

invisible because of oppression and that what

pushed the colonized and obliged him to build a

wall between him and his mother tongue. From

what Albert Memmi said, we understand that

Algerian writers were obliged to write in French

language why they were separated, and why they

were far away from Arabic language. Then Jean

Amrouche said:

when you are in the position of the

colonized, you are obliged to use his language

that borrowed to you, and the use of this

language has one goal which is to commend the

colonial… you are making a big mistake… they

teach you French, not to use it against them… 5

5 Jean Amrouche, Algérie: Photographies : Henriette Grindat. Préface et textes, (Paris : Éditions Clairefontaine, 1956), p.48.

15

Amrouche was trying to express the deep

feeling of stress that was felt by many writers

such as Amrouche himself, Mohamed Dib, Kateb

Yacine…, but the question that asks itself, why

didn’t those writers use the mother tongue

(Arabic) to express themselves and society?.

Mohamed Dib answered the previous question

saying that is recurrent to his education which

led him to write without any complication, he

saw also that language is the perfect copier of

any intellect, and as an Algerian, he saw that

there is no problem in using the French

language. In other side, the French language

guaranties to him an audience.6

Language for those writers was not just

a way for expression, but also it reversed the

soul of people and the soul of civilization (it

represented a part of thinking).7

Dib, Maamri, Yacine, Feroune, and

Borbone wrote in French and showed the issue of

literature written in this language, this

literature found itself between two different6 Jean Amrouche, op. sit.7 Arnaud Jacqueline, La littérature maghrébine de langue française, (Paris: Publisud, 1986), pp, 29-35.

15

civilizations with two different cultures. They

expressed the tragedy of Algerian people in

different ways through press and literature,

Malek Haddad said that he was restricted from

the Arabic language; also he added that the goal

of writing in French language was to participate

in war to help Algerian people to get freedom.

Algerian writers felt the split,

between a foreign language culture learnt at

school, and original (local) culture attracted

them to it because it was related to the

environment where they were born, all this had a

great effect on their way of thinking and

expressing, the thing that explained the crisis

that some people considered it as a tragedy

which represented in their feelings. There is no

doubt that our writers puzzled before choosing

writing in French, that very obvious in the

statements of few writers like Kateb Yacine who

said:

Silent or telling what is not told8

8 Kateb Yacine, Nedjma, (Paris: Presses universitaires deFrance, 1952), p.86.

15

It means, to be or not to be, to be

silent and participate in the crime or the other

choice which was to write, but to write what? He

was speaking with non-understood language for

the French people and Algerians too, the

Algerian writers built with this language a new

Algerian language with a new philosophy, so it

is another language non-French full of

paradoxes. Those writers felt strange and exile

in a foreign language and foreign culture.9

5. Algerian public libraries during the French

colonization:

Public libraries are the past and the

future of Algerian history and literature, they

are the mirror that reverses the history of any

people or any nation, a way of living, and its

civilization, and they were considered one of

the ways to display knowledge, and freedom of

thinking. From here, public libraries had an

important role for a lot of nations in order to

make knowledge and culture spread, and the

development. They gave an important and a

special place between the other libraries and

9 Arnaud Jacqueline, op. sit. p.30.

15

making it in the first place. France used this

role and this importance since 1830 on order to

fight Algerian culture and to defeat the

Algerian personality.

5.1. General French policy in Algeria:

The French colonization to Algeria was

not easy, despite her forces invade Algiers in

1830, she didn’t succeed to invade all regions

until 1911 (first step in Sahara), she faced a

huge resistance from a lot of leaders in

different regions like El Emir Abd El Kader in

the west, Awlad Sisdi Echikh, El Mokrani (1871),

and Chikh Bouaamama…when France realized that

she was putting her feet on the Algerian people,

she started to practice her policy and trying to

reach her goals. In general, her policy and

goals were to erase the Algerian nation from the

existence. The cultural side suffered from the

distinction especially what was in relation with

national heritage, Islamic culture, and

religion.10

10 D. Nadjia Kammouh, Public libraries in Algeria (1830-1962), (Constantine: Mentury University Articles,2. http://nypl.bibliocommons.com. Accessed on 14/04/2014. 2007), p

15

5.2. Cultural policy of France in Algeria:

When France got in 1830, they found

that Algerians were well educated with Arabic

culture and Islamic principles. Algerian people

took on its shoulders the responsibility of

rising with culture and organizing ways of

development in culture, science and thinking,

they gave all what they had money, efforts and

souls in order to get freedom. Who says that

culture in Algeria didn’t exist or it was

absent, he is totally wrong, what is true is

that culture was weak but still exist in the

Algerian society waiting for a new birth or a

new generation, and that is what was clear and

obvious in the testimony of a lot of writers,

authors, and scholars. When you listen to these

testimonies or read it you can see that culture

and education were much better before 1830 than

after. In Constantine (1830) alone there were 7

high schools, 90 primary schools, and that is an

enough prove or evidence of the previous

testimonies. About this subject, French

responsible said: “primary education in Algeria

was more spread than we thought”. Another one

15

talked and said: “illiteracy was almost zero in

Algeria”. The third one said: “Algerian people

were more educated than French people”.

According to the three quotations, culture and

education at that time was in his top but after

the French invasion things changed to the

worse.11

In general, education in Algeria was

spread by the beginning of colonialism, and

there was in front of each mosque a school and

each mosque or school with a teacher and a

library. After the invasion, France didn’t stop

at the level of taking lands and defeating

Algerian personality but she tried to control

Algerians’ hearts and minds, this was very

obvious when France closed schools and mosques

that teach Arabic language, this was normal for

France since she was the invader who knew very

well that she could not impose her culture while

the culture of the colonized country still exist

and alive.

5.3. Kinds of libraries in this period:

11 Ibid.

15

There were libraries for Europeans and

libraries for Algerians, they were separated,

and each one had a different role from the

other.

5.3.1. Libraries for Europeans:

These libraries were provided for European

visitors and scholars only it was divided into

two types:

A.The central library of Algiers:

This library was founded in 1872 to

cover the big need of Algiers; its residency was

in El Kasbah city. It contained a lot of

writings about Algeria. In 1881, there were

about 1818bookbinders, and then in 1914 there

were 13607. There were 12 libraries followed the

central library of Algiers contained 52229

bookbinders with a good literature value.

Readers were about 180000 French and few

Algerians (who were studying in French

schools).12

B.Secondary libraries:

12 Nadjia Kammouh, op. sit. p,6.

15

There was 12 libraries followed the

central library as we have said before, seven of

these libraries were for adults and five for

children. These libraries were called also

libraries of cities. Libraries opened from 17:00

to 19:00, they borrowed books for free. About

types of reading, 96% reading of entertainment

(widows of war in order to forget war and its

problems). Concerning children libraries, they

opened only one day in week (Thursday in the

morning, for boys while the whole evening was

for girls). In 1930, there were about 1700

children who went to this kind of libraries.13

C.The popular library of El Abyar:

It was founded Alfred Coulon (headmaster of the

national library) with the help of Algiers’

mire. It contained more than 2000 books

including very important books about Algeria, it

opened only on Sundays. It wasn’t good enough

and it was closed for many reasons. First, this

library had no residency, also, carless of

books, then, there were no voluntaries for a

work like that; the last reason was that this

13 Nadjia Kammouh, op. sit. p,7.

15

library lost a lot of good books or the books

became useless.

5.3.2 Algerian libraries:

There were a lot of Algerian libraries but

just four main ones, Tlemcen’s library,

Annabas’s library, Bedjaya’s library, and

Constantine’s library.

a.Tlemcen’s library:

It was in a room in a school in Tlemcen,

it contained 369 books with different subjects

(Arabic language, history of Islam, Islamic

legislation…). Its budget was about 120 franc;

its headmaster was the director of Tlemcen’s

school high Islamic education.14

b.Annaba’s library:

It opened for one hour in day every week except

Sundays, it contained 462 books. These books

were divided into four groups, the first group

contained books of Quran, Quran explanation, and

El Hadith. The second group: books of law and

14 Ibid. p,8.

15

legislation. The third group: books of Arabic

literature, grammar and logic. The last group

contained books of history.

c.Bedjaya’s library:

It was founded in 1903; its residency was

nearby Sis Essoufi’s mosque. It contained

books of legislation, grammar, language,

Arabic literature, history, and geography.

d. Constantine’s library:

It was founded in the Komp city outside of the

high Islamic education school; it opened every

evening from 15:00. It contained a lot of books

written in Arabic and a lot of codex which were

collected from mosques of the city.15

We may notice the weakness of all

these libraries as a direct cause of the French

policy in that field. France used this policy in

order to form a class of followers and to

curtain Algerian people from his culture and his

education.

Conclusion:

15 Ibid. p, 9.

15

The Algerian revolution started since the

invasion of Sidi Fredj’s port and contained all

types of resistance, but the emergence of a new

type, the resistance of pen; this type was a

respond to the French cultural policy in

Algeria.

Algerian literature played a great role

in war and resistance; it resisted the French

colonial and colonialism in general. Algerian

literature presented the national community and

defended Algeria from losing its culture,

believes, identity and freedom, that’s what was

clear and obvious in poetry, theatre, and novel.

15

Chapter two: The Algerian Novel.

1-Introduction:

The origins of new Algerian literature

go back to the first half of the nineteenth

century when it was the literary movement in the

Arabian Maghreb related to the Orient. Arabic

Renaissance began when Arabs started to give and

reborn the ancient books or works and made it

useful, in addition to the industrial revolution

and what it brought with it like translation

movement, typing…and being open to the European

culture.

2-History of New Algerian Literature:

15

If Mahmud Sami El Baroudi (1838-1904)

was one of the first establishers of new Arabic

literature in the Arabic Orient, El Emir Abd El

Kader was considered as its leader in the Arabic

Maghreb in general and in Algeria particularly.

Both of them represented a school of revival and

re-creation. El Emir led the revolution in a

period where Arabic culture and Algerian

literature were alive, and education was spread.

This situation became weak by the coming of

colonialism where illiteracy began to appear and

literary production started to live a period of

weakness because of immigration of some writers

and authors or their silence, especially after

El Emir’s exile from Algeria to Syria (Damas),

for that his period still considered the period

of the new Algerian Literature.16

Concerning prose in this period, it

conserved its beauty. A lot of names with

different thoughts approaches and styles

appeared like Hamdan Ben Othman Khoudja (1773-

1840) the writer of The Woman , he had a bright

mind with a national spirit. Mohammed Ben Annabi16 http://www.algeria.com/literature/ Accessed on 15/04/2014.

15

who wrote Assayo Elmahmoud Fi Nidham El Jonoud , also,

kaddour Ben Rwila wrote Wichah El Kataib wa Zinat El

Jaych Elmahammadi Elghalib but El Emir Abd El Kader

was the leader and the main writer especially

poetry in this period. In this period we can

notice some achievements or results such as:

a.The new Algerian prose was realized in an

early time from immobility and dominated

Arabic literature in the previous

centuries.

b.Arabic language despite its weakness and

the bad conditions, it could express the

writers’ feelings and told us about society

and culture at tha time.

c.The process of literature because of the

contact with the outside world.

d.The emergence of new forms in literature

like pros that didn’t exist before.17

3- The Rise of Algerian Novel:

The rise of Algerian novel has not an exact

date or a special period, it has common roots

(Islamic and Arabic) like telling the stories of

17 Mafkouda Salah, the rise of arabic novel in algeria, ElMakhbar magazine, second edition 2005

15

Quran like the story of the prophet

Mohammed( Allah peace up on him), Tales of El

Hamadani and El Hariri, letters, and travelers.

The first work in Algerian that looks like the

novel was Hikayat El Ochak fi Elhoub wa El Ichtiyak

Mohammed Ben Ibrahim in 1849, this work was

followed by other essays in a form of travelers

that had a narrative type like Algerian Travelers to

Paris in 1852, 1878, and 190218. Then, it appeared

a generation of writers who wrote without a

theoretic consciousness about the conditions of

writing a novel like in Ghada Ummo El Kora by

Ahmed Reda Houhou in 1947,Attalib El Mankoub in

1951 by Abd El Madjid Echafii, The Fire by

Noureddine Boudjedra and Voice of Love in 1967 by

Mohammed Manii. The artistic beginning or the

foundation of novel in Algeria in literature was

related to the appearance of Southern Wind in 1971

by Abd El Hamid Ben Haddouga19.

4-Algerian Novel of French Expression:

18 Omar ben Kayna : in the new algerian literature,1995.19 Ben Djamaa Bouchoucha, Sardiyat Ettajrib wa Hadathat

Asserdiya fi Riwaya al Jazairiy,(Tunisie : ALmagharibiya, 2005),

p.. ة� ة�سردي��ّ ي� ال�رواي�� ة� ف� ة� ال�سردي�� ي��ب� وح�داي�� ج�ر �ة� ال�ت ري��ّ ائ�! ال�ج�ر�

15

What was obvious in novelistic

writings is the gaps between what was written in

French language and what was written in Arabic

language in all side (expression, cultural

values…), in addition to this, the spread of

novel written in French language in both Arab

world and western was more than Algerian novel

written in Arabic language. Novel of French

expression in Algerian literature appeared

before the novel written in Arabic.

This gave the novel of French

expression a special place and the power of

communication with western literature and the

Maghreb literature too.

The Algerian novel of French

expression was a cultural phenomenon that

created a massive debate between scholars and

critics. There was who considered it as an

Arabic novel taking in consideration ideas and

society, but most of critics considered it

Algerian novel written in French; they said that

language is the only solution that literature

acquires its identity. Novel of French

15

expression participated in the development of

French literature more than the Algerian.20

4-1 The Effect of Algerian War on Novelistic

writings:

French colonization (1830-1962) had a

great effect on the Algeria society (politics,

economics, culture…). Algerian war was like the

turning point for the Algerian novel experience

where it was the subject of writing by telling

its heroic or reformulates it.

The Algerian novelists found

themselves facing the language of the other side

since French language was the only path to speak

to this side and because the French colonization

imposed this language on them and tried to

destroy the mother tongue (language is the

important part in the identity of any nation).

4-2 The Main Novelists and Novels Written in

French Language:

Novel of French expression based on the

Algerian Revolution. There were a lot of

20 Nawel Ben Salah : algerian novel of french expression, struggle oflanguage and identity.

15

novelists who wrote about Algerian revolution

before, during the war even after the

independence. All these novels or this kind of

writings was called Literature of Resistance or

literature of Algerian revolution. The main

novelists might be Mouloud Feraoune who wrote Son

of Poor in 1953, in which he showed the real mood

of the man in kabyle where the child born to

fight for life, while the other side of this

novel is the side that describes the conditions

of the preparation for Algerian war. It was the

struggle of elaborating a strange language or a

strange culture where Fouroulou21 felt himself

strange in a French high school, and he was

afraid to be fired for any reason. Son of Poor is

the biography of Mouloud Feraoune In which he

described his childhood and adolescence.

Concerning his novel Earth and Blood in 1957, its

events took place between the WW1 and WW2 and

ended in 1930, in which the hero Ameur suffered

because he emigrated to France looking for a job

then he returned to his village with his French

wife but he couldn’t acclimate with his new

21Mouloud Feraoune, Le fils du pauvre, (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1954), p. 12.

15

world in his small village, he couldn’t live in

a strange country and he couldn’t live in his

village too. Mouloud was considered as a symbol

for his generation, he was a mixture between two

worlds with different cultures, he characterized

the problems and paradoxes in this period of

Renaissance.

Another novelist who had his clear

print in the literature of resistance, he is

Mohammed Dib who was born in Tlemcen in 1920, he

wrote Algeria, his name still related with his

famous literary works: The Big House in 1952, The

Fire in 1954, and Ennoul . According to Amine Zaoui22

who linked Mohammed Dib with his works every

time the name Dib was mentioned, because he was

writing about Algerian war and he had political

views.

22 Amin Zaoui (born 25 November 1956) is an Algerian novelist. He was born in Bab el Assa in Tlemcen province and studied at the University of Oran, obtaining a PhD incomparative literature. He has served as the Director General of the National Library of Algeria, and currentlyteaches comparative literature at the Central Algerian University. Zaoui is a bilingual writer, and has published novels in both French and Arabic. His work has been translated into a dozen languages. Zaoui's French novel Festin de Mensonges has been translated into English by Frank Wynne. In 2012, his Arabic novel The Goatherd was nominated for the Arabic Booker Prize.

15

Mouloud Maamri is another Algerian

novelist who wrote in French language. He is the

writer of La Colline Oublié in 1952. The events of

this novel started before WW2, it gave the clear

view or image of Algerian society during the

French colonization, Mouloud Maamri in La Colline

Oublié was expressing the tragedies of Algerian

people and his sadness and suffering. The novel

l’Opium ET Le Baton written in 1955, he represented

an important phenomenon in Algerian novel of

French expression, it was considered as the

first literary product of novel. Maamri’s works

were known by accompaniment of politics, in

addition, giving a deep image on Kabyl society

and Algerians in general.

The same things for Malek Haddad but

with some different characteristics, his main

works were Rassif El Azhar La Youjib, Je T’Offerai Une Gazelle

and Echakaa Fi Khatar. Haddad was suffering from his

double tragedy with feelings different from

others. This double tragedy (colonialism and

language) was what give a path to his works.

Malek Haddad had his own approach of

understanding. In his novel Je T’Offerai Une Gazelle, he

15

is narrating a love story between a truck driver

and a young girl who lives in an oasis where the

truck driver stopped to relax where he saw the

girl there. The Student and the Lesson in which Haddad

focused on coordination of words, sentences to

the whole novel instead of giving a novelistic

shape to the events, characters and situations

then he put the words. In a lot of situations in

this novel you feel that it is becoming poetry.

The Student and the Lesson is a long monologue; we

have just one character which is the character

of an Algerian doctor who lived in a French city

alone after the death of his wife. Novels of

Malek Haddad were about Algerian revolution with

a lot of strong feelings and emotions, both

Haddad’s characters and revolution were

voluminous source for his novels. Haddad, in his

novels appears as a writer of poetry more than a

writer of story. He was affected by the French

poet Aragon and the philosopher Bergusson who

left an obvious affect on Haddad’s works.

Kateb Yacine, an Algerian novelist

was born in Essamando near Constantine in 1929,

he wrote Nedjma in 1956 which was considered as a

15

witness on the birth of new Algeria. French

scholars and critics measured Kateb Yacine as

the best author who represented the school of

literature of North Africa23. He had the respect

of western and Arab critics because of his work

Nedjma in which he showed the miserable life of

himself and his nation in general.

Kateb Yacine adopted a special

situation in his writings, he was looking for

his mother earth by giving her the name of a

woman Nedjma, Nedjma was the spirit of the whole

country. The event that effected Yacine’s

literary writings was massacres of Setif, Guelma

and Kharrata. Nedjma, the heroine of this novel

represented Algeria itself. Kateb Yacine said:

‘‘Nedjma is the soul of new disreputable Algeria

from the beginning’’24 . According to Kateb,

Algeria was broken and he tried to show the

development of Algeria. Nedjma was followed by

four heroes (Rachid, Lakhdar, Mourad, and

Mustapha) and the adventures of those heroes in

23 Malek Haddad, l’eléve et la leçon, (paris : julliard, 1960), p.38.24 Makhbar magazine : research in language and Algerian literature- Mohammed Khidhar University- Biskra, Algerie p 102

15

looking for Nedjma formed the shape of the

novel. Nedjma represented also the political and

economical side25.

French language writings played an

important role in building the national identity

in the continued struggle with the French

colonial by the first novels of Moahammed Dib,

Mouloud Feraoune,and Kateb Yacine. They fought

and rose against colonialism they used the

colonizer’s language to fight him. It became

impossible to discuss the problem of language

without returning to the history of Algerian

novel and saying that it is not an Algerian

novel, indeed it is but with another language.26

5-Algerian Novel after the Independence:

After the independence, Algerian novel

walked side by side with politics and

transmitted the different changes in the

society, and the conditions that helped these

25Ibid. p.103.26 http//allal-sansouga.com

15

changes. What was obvious also was that the

Algerian novel walked with communism and this is

what we find in the period of 1970’s. Before

talking about the period of 1970’s let’s deal

with the main reasons that didn’t help Algerian

novel to appear during the period of 1960’s.

1.The negative role of French colonization:

there was an intellectual development in all

Arabic orient while Algeria missed it,

that’s because of the nature of colonialism

that Algeria knew.

2.The absence of Algerian novelistic forms

could be imitated and to write like it.

3.The difficulty of novel as an art because it

needs patience, imagination, and long

speculation.

4.The absence of good language that could

picture environment and the entourage and

that was a result of the domination of

language of reform and speeches.27

5-Algerian Novel in 1970’s:

The period of 1970’s was considered as

the real emergence of a good artistic novel and27 Hassan Rachdi , the phenomenon of new algerian literature, 2006 .

15

good works like Abd El Hamid Ben Haddouga who

wrote Southern wind , Mohammed Araar and his novel

Ma La Tatharoho Arriyah also Allaz and Azzilzal by Taher

Wattar. With the appearance of these works,

there was a new experience and developed.

The period after the independence

pushed Algerian novelists to write in Arabic and

to express the real world with its details

whether returning to the Algerian revolution or

going deeper inside the new life (politics,

economics, and culture).

Characteristics of novel in this period

were courage and artistic adventure because of

freedom that Algerian writers acquired from the

new politics unlike during colonization before

this period taking in consideration that writing

is an art don’t’ develop without freedom, with

the oppression the writer could adopt a lot of

situation if the political side was different.

The first Algerian novelists who found the new

Algerian and lived the war of independence had

an experience in writing about the Algerian war

because they had a background about it. Abou El

Kacem Saad Allah said: “balances of revolution,

15

political ripen and militancy experience”28,

according ti Abou El Kacem this makes novelists

mixed between creativity and politics. Ben

Haddouga was the representative of Supporters of

Democracy Party and movement of Algerian

students in Tunisia while he was studying there;

he was also a member in F.L.N Party. Taher

Wattar was a member of F.L.N; he was concerned

with politics, after independence he worked as

an observer in F.L.N.29 All these gave those

novelists and them writings a political

dimensions for example Ben Haddouga’s wrote

Southern Wind during the period of Agricultural

Revolution in 1970 in which he spoke about

Algerian countryside and showed how countryside

should get out from its solitude and should

develop. Events of Southern Wind happened in

countryside in a region between the south and

the north of Algeria.30 It’s a simple story where

a feudal father called Ibn El Kadhi wanted from

his daughter to get married with the mire in

order to keep his properties and protect it from

the new project which is the agricultural28 Ahmed Ferhat : cultural voices in the Arabic Maghreb.29 Ben Djamaa Boucoucha , op. sit. P.15.

30Omar ben Kayna : in the new algerian literature,1995, P 198.

15

revolution but his daughter Nafissa refused. In

this novel Ben Haddouga related woman’s freedom

by riddance from feudalism in the form of

perfect equation; this is very obvious when he

said:

“woman and land couldn’t be

independence without changing the current social

relationships, feudalism is not just materiality

but it is specific situations”31. In general this

novel with its entourage and characters

represented the countryside during the 1970’s

and how the countryside received the

agricultural revolution, in his novel The End of

Yesterday (Nihayat El Amss) Ben Hadddouga spoke also

about feudalism.

Taher Wattar in his works, he spoke

about changes and growth happened in Algerian

society. Socialism and realism school had an

obvious effect on Wattar’s works (spontaneity,

universality version)32. In his novel Allaz, Taher

Wattar returned to the war of independence where

he wrote about its stages and tried to look for

31 Ahmed Ferhat : cultural voices in the Arabic Maghreb, p89.32 Idriss Bouthiba : the viw and the structure in Taher Wattar’s novels, p44.

15

reasons of why after independence this war

didn’t continue by using his characters to

mention his point of view, his novel was full of

ideas, characters, and situations. Allaz was the

main character (developed character) where it

changes from a normal person to people’s symbol.

Algerian novel in this period walked

side by side with society and policy followed by

the government (communism), it was like a

bridge, it helped the Algerian government to

build the Algerian society and policy. It was

the image of the whole Algerian society.

5-2Algerian Novel During the 1980’s:

The novelistic experience in this period was

a result of transformation that happened in the

society after the 1970’s, this generation

presented a new direction in literature

especially novel, for example Wassini El Aaraj’s

novels like El Ah’thiya El Khachina in 1981, Awjaa Rajol

15

Ghamir Sawba El Bahr in 1983,and Nawwar Ellouze in

1986.33

Wassini El Aaraj found a new novelistic

type in the late of this period in his novel Ma

Tabakka min Sirat Lakhdhar Hamrouche in 1983 where the

blood of the communist Lakhdhar goes for

nothing; he is one of the main political

characters in this novel. Lakhdhar was

communist; he criticized the system by

slaughtering Aissa (moudjahid) during the

revolution. This novel presented the explicit

view to the official Algerian history.

Lahbib Sayeh wrote Zamano Attamarrod in

1985, also a lot of works like Dog’s smell in 1985

by Djillali Khalass and his novel Hmaimo Achafak

in 1988. Merazak Bektach wrote El Bouzak in 1982

and Azzouz El Kabran in 1989, where the cheikh of

mosque (one of the main characters, symbol of

salafists in Algeria) was with the national

movements. He was the representative of the idea

that said yes for one Algeria.34 In this novel,

Merzak Baktach was dealing with the struggle

33 Ben Djamaa Bouchoucha op. sit. p.9.34Ibid.

15

with the salafists and government trying to give

the solution to build a democratic country that

except only the idea of Algeria is above

anyone.35

Rachid Boudjedra has a lot of works

and novels like Attafakkok in 1982, Laylat Imraa Arik

in 1985, and Maarakat Ezzokaka in 1986. In this

period, Taher Wattar continued writing his

second part of his novel Allaz, it was an

experience of love and death in the period of El

Harrachi in 1980 where he described the

revolution’s destiny after the independence. 36

There was a lot of novelistic

experiences and views of its novelists and

different situations in dealing with cases and

problematic of Algerian actuality in the

eighteenths, some of them saw that we should

return to the origins in order realize

juvenility in the novel like in novels of

Wassini El Aaraj, while there were others saw

that juvenility or modernity should be realized

by focusing on language and transform it to a35 Allal Chenfoufa, el motakhayyil wa essolta fi alakat arriwaya el jazairiya bi assolta assiyassiya, p.74-75. http://www.diwanalarab.com/spip.php?article3707436 Nabil Soulaymane : Attajrib fi arriwaya el jazairiyya

15

big space of creativity and complexity is the

most suitable method for their novels like in

the novels of Rachid Boudjedra and Djilali

Khalass.37

What was noticed in this period Is

that Algerian novelists went deeper and adopted

a new novelistic approach, that was clear in

using new techniques and methods whether Arabic

techniques or universal. Abd El Hamid Ben

Haddouga wrote his novel El Jaziyah wa Eddarawich in

1983; this novel was qualitative addition to his

career. It fixed the problematic of revolution

during independence and its consequences,

struggle, and its deviation from its principles

during the war, that’s what Taher Wattar

confirmed in his novel El Hawwat wa El Kassr in 1980

and Experience in love 38 in 1988 where he spoke about

the reputation of the government that ruled

Algeria’s independence.39

The period of 1980’s witnessed the

emergence of important works but with a limited

37Ben Djamaa Bouchoucha :sardiyat attajrib wa hadathat asserdiya fi riwaya al jazairiyya38 Tajriba fi el ichk.39Ben Djamaa Bouchoucha :sardiyat attajrib wa hadathat asserdiya fi riwaya al jazairiyya

15

value (thinking and beauty), because of the

absence of sensibility, consciousness, and

cognition, these three elements were very

important to understand the Algerian society’s

conversion, his struggles and paradoxes of

independence period. For that reason, we find

that the content sometimes is weak at the level

of writing, and artless in expression of Algeria

and Algerian society during 1970’s and 1980’s.40

Also what was clear is that almost all

novels in this period deal with the subject of

revolution and showing how great it was. Unlike

a lot of novels showed like The Explosion in 1984,

Homoum azzaman Elfallaki in 1985, Bayt Elhamraa in

1986, El Inhiyar in 1986, Zaman El Aachak wa El Akhtar in

1988, and Khayra wa El Hayyal by Mohammed Fellah, El

Alwaho Tahtarik in 1982 by Mohammed Rattili,

Addahiyya in 1984 by Hidouci Rabah, finally,

Tatalaalao echamss in 1989 by Mohammed Mourtadh and

a lot of works that helped to show what other

works didn’t show from a critical view.41

5-3 Algerian Novel During 1990’s:

40Ben Djamaa Bouchoucha op. sit. p.10.41Ibid, p.10-11.

15

The period of 1990’s was full of

novels in which novelists tried to build a

novelistic text and looked for creativity

related with the historical period and society

which formed the basics that a lot of novelists

could through it to expose the characters and

events. The main subject of this period is

educated category that found itself prisoner of

authority and the hell of terrorism whether

professors, writers, journalists, drawers, or

employees, always they felt death running after

them. Novel in 1990’s had an ideological view

because of tragedies that the country passed

through, that’s what let an obvious print on

novel. All novelistic texts appeared in a period

of adversity, it tried to reverse the pain of

people.42

After the crisis blew Algerian society

during the previous years which touched all its

categories, Algerian novel took another path in

which it dealt with the subject of the crisis

42 ل$د ك$ر، ال�مج� ال�م ال�ف� لة� ع$� ، م�ج� ة� ي� ال�رواي�� ره�اب� ف� ر الإ5 ئ�� لوف� ع�امر: ا! ر، د22م�ج� مب� ت� ول ب��س$ب� ، ال�ع$دد الإ!304، ص 1999ط، .

15

and its consequences. Novel of crisis assumed

from Algerian buskin a way for it.

Terrorism is not a simple event for

any society in the world, it is not measured by

the time it takes or how many crimes it left

behind it, but how horrible an monstrosity it

is, when this is related to Algeria terrorism

can be measured by all the previous measures, it

took a long time that’s why a lot of writers

concerned with it.43

Subject of violence or terrorism was

the center of all works (novels) in the period

of 1990’s, but it wasn’t the only characteristic

of Algerian novel in this period because this

period wasn’t just a period of terrorism but a

period of transformations towards economy of

market, carding employees, and cancel elections

of 1992.44

ع�مال43 ، ا! ة� ة� ل�لرواي�� نR ه�دوق� د ب�� د ال�حمي� ع ع�ي� ب�� ي$� ال�دولي� ال�سا ق� ، ال�ملت� ص سردي� ر ك�ن� ائ�! اب� ال�ج�ر� ي� سعي� : ب�� م س�عدي� ائ��راه�ي�راب� موعة� م�جاض� حوب� / م�ح� ، ص و ب�� ي� ال�دولي ال�سادس، د ط، د ب� ق� 144- 143ال�ملت�

44 دد عي� ع$$� وب�� ر الإس$$� ب� ، ال�خ$$� ي� ن� راه�نR ال�وط$$� ة� و ال$$� ري$$�� ائ�! ة� ال�ج�ر� : ال�رواي$$�� عدي� م س$$� راه�ي� ، دب��س$$مب�ر4ائ$$��14ص م،1999

15

Algerian novel in this new period

(period of multi-parties) transformed from novel

of authority to a novel of reluctance (authority

lost its prestige after the events of October

08th 1988), after being in a good atmosphere that

was a result when Algeria entered in a period of

new choices at the level of politics and

economics. Things changed, policy of one party

is gone and replaced by multi-parties, this

brings with it the right of the freedom of

expression (new constitution), and this obliged

the novelistic texts to think twice about its

situation. The first reaction of novelists was

consciousness about the national buskin.45

Before, we have read a lot of novels

from different generations that dealt with the

subject of the political violence and its

results (on society, economics, and culture)

where Taher Wattar in ر� ده�الب� معة� و ال$$� meet Wassini El 46ال�س$$�Aaraj in ام دة� ال�مف$$� ي� both of them were looking for , 47س$$�

45 ب�ر دة� ال�خ$$� ي$$�� ر ، ج�� م ال�س$$عدي� راه�ي� !ي� ائ$$�� روائ� ع ال$$� وار م$$� �ي� ح$$� ائ� د� ع$$د ال$$� د الي ال�ت� ي$$� ف� ة� ب�� ري$$�� ائ�! ر� ة� ال�ج� : ال�رواي$$�� اب� ي� ب� نR ص$$� ب��اء لإي�� وان11Rال�ي� 19، ص 2001 ح�� .

46 47

15

the roots of the crisis, like other novelists

did, like Ibrahim Saadi and his novel 48 Rم�ن اوي ر� ت$$$$� ف��

ورم Mohammed Sari in ,ال�م$$وب� and Bachir Mofti the 49ال$$�writer of ر� ائ�! ت$$$� م و ال�ج� ي� ام For example, in . 50ال�مراس$$$� دة� ال�مف$$$� ي� 51س$$$�

Wassini El Aaraj described the pain of Meriem

who is a symbol of the Algerian immovable woman;

he also gave the raison of this pain which was

the system and the dark stream that was against

any kind of development and civilization.52

Terrorism in ام دة� ال�مف$$� ي� wasn’t just news س$$�we read or we write about it, but it was one of

the component of novel in this period, it gave a

historical, ideological, and political

dimension.53

Fadila Farouk characterized the life of an

Algerian journalist in Algerian east through her48 49 50 51

52 ع،د ط، د ب$�� ور� ر و ال�ت� س$� ، دار الإم$�ل و ال�ن� ل$ف� ت� لي ال�مج� ل ا5 ة� م�نR ال�مت�ماث$�� ري�� ائ�! ر� ة� ال�ج� ي� ال�رواي�� ل ف� ي� ج� : ال�مت� لعلي� ة� ي�� م�ن� ا�، ص 77ب� .

53 ،ص ة� ن� ة� ال�روائ�! اي�� ي� ال�كي� ره�اب� ف� ر الإ5 ئ�� لوف� ع�امر: ا! 316م�ج� .

15

novel ل ج� اء ال�خ� in which she is investigating the 54ي$$$$$��suicide of a young girl to discover that she

jumped from a bridge in Constantine because her

father ordered her, the reason was she did

nothing, she was raped by some dirty hands.

Fadila, through this novel she described the

current situation during the black period, a

period full of crimes and sexual abuse. Fadila

decided to leave the country because of the

choking situation.55

The phenomenon of terrorism that was

characterized in the Algerian novel during the

period of 1990’s was mentioned twenty years ago

(period of 1970’s) in Taher Wattar’s novel ق� و ال�عس$$�

ي� م�نR ال�جراش$$$$$$$� ي� ر� where ال�م$$$$$$$وب� ف� it describes the strugglebetween Salafists and volunteers of Agricultural

Revolution.56

As a summary, political speech and

novelistic texts are results of political and

54 55 ، ص اشي� ي� ال�سلطة� ال�سي� ة� ف� ري�� ائ�! ر� ة� ال�ج� ة� ال�رواي�� ي� ع�لإق� ل و ال�سلطة� ف� ي� ي� ة� ع�لإل: ال�مج� وق� ف� ت� 83س�� .56 ، ص اشي� ي� ال�سلطة� ال�سي� ة� ف� ري�� ائ�! ر� ة� ال�ج� ة� ال�رواي�� ي� ع�لإق� ل و ال�سلطة� ف� ي� ي� ة� ع�لإل: ال�مج� وق� ف� ت� 83س�� .

15

national ideas. Algerian novel walked side by

side with all the political transformations that

happened in the Algerian society with its

different periods passing with the 1970’s to the

1980’s till the 1990’s that was full of

different events and situations in all fields

especially politics and peace. Concerning novel

was known by the appearance of a new kind of

writing called Novel of Crisis; a lot of

novelists adopted this kind of writing such as

Wassini El Aaraj, Ahlem Mosteghanmi, Rachid

Boudjedra, Taher Wattar, and Bachir Mofti. In

addition to these writers, new writers had an

experience of novel of crisis like the Algerian

novelist Soufiane Zedadka.57

Chapter Three :

1.Introduction :

57 ، ص ة� ن� ة� ال�روائ�! اي�� ي� ال�كي� ره�اب� ف� ر الإ5 ئ�� لوف� ع�امر: ا! 309-308 – 306-305م�ج� .

15

Women writings or literature of women still

a not stable term because it evokes a lot of

challenges, Khaldah Said in her writings dealt

with subjects concerned women like woman’s

freedom, and creativity. She saw that this term

is mysterious and it is one among a lot of

names, it is not an exact name because it needs

exactitude.58There were a lot of critics and

writers who said that there is no literature for

man or a literature for woman, there is just

literature. The experience of women writers in

Algeria is a talk or a debate full of doubt and

darkness because it is related to the Algerian

society before all, creativity is an art and art

needs freedom after talent. The element of

freedom looks not clear in the Algerian

atmosphere especially for women.

58 Fériel Lalami-Fatès, “Les femmes au coeur des violences,” Confluences Méditerranée 25

15

2.The Status of Women in Algerian Society:

The Algerian women's movement has made few

gains since independence, and women in Algeria

remain relegated to a subordinate position that

compares unfavorably with the position of women

in such neighboring countries as Tunisia and

Morocco. Once the war was over, women who had

played a significant part in the War of

Independence were expected, by the government

and society in general, to return to the home

and their traditional roles. Despite this

emphasis on women's customary roles, in 1962, as

part of its program to mobilize various sectors

of society in support of the socialism, the

government created the National Union of

Algerian Women (Union Nationale des Femmes

Algeriennes- UNFA). On March 8, 1965 the union

15

held its first march to celebrate International

Women's Day; nearly 6,000 women participated.

The union never captured the interest of

feminists, nor could it attract membership among

rural workers who were probably most vulnerable

to the patriarchal tradition. In 1964 the

creation of Al Qiyam (values), a mass

organization that promoted traditional Islamic

values, delivered another blow to the women's

movement. The resurgence of the Islamic

tradition was largely a backlash against the

role of French colonists in the preindependence

period. During the colonial period, the French

tried to "liberate" Algerian women by pushing

for better education and eliminating the veil.

After the revolution, many Algerians looked back

on these French efforts as an attempt by the

colonists to "divide and conquer" the Algerians.

Islam and Arabic tradition became powerful

mobilizing forces and signs of national unity.59

Women's access to higher education has

improved, however, even if their rights to

employment, political power, and autonomy are

limited. For the most part, women seem content59 www.about.com

15

to return to the home after schooling. Overall

enrollment at all levels of schooling, from

primary education through university or

technical training, has risen sharply, and women

represent more than 40 percent of students.60

Another major gain of the women's movement

was the Khemisti Law. Drafted by Fatima

Khemisti, wife of a former foreign minister, and

presented to the APN in 1963, the resolution

that later came to be known as the Khemisti Law

raised the minimum age of marriage. Whereas

girls were still expected to marry earlier than

boys, the minimum age was raised to sixteen for

girls and eighteen for boys. This change greatly

facilitated women's pursuit of further

education, although it fell short of the

nineteen-year minimum specified in the original

proposal.

The APN provided one of the few public forums

available to women. In 1965, following the

military coup, this access was taken away when

Boumediene suspended the APN. No female members

were elected to the APN under Ben Bella, but

women were allowed to propose resolutions before60 www.about.com

15

the assembly (e.g., the Khemisti Law). In the

early post independence years, no women sat on

any of the key decision-making bodies, but nine

women were elected to the APN when it was

reinstated in 1976. At the local and regional

level, however, women's public participation

rose significantly. As early as 1967, ninety-

nine female candidates were elected to communal

assemblies (out of 10,852 positions nationwide).

By the late 1980s, the number of women in

provincial and local assemblies had risen to

almost 300.

The 1976 National Charter went far toward

guaranteeing legal equality between men and

women. The charter recognizes women's right to

education and refers to their role in the

social, cultural, and economic facets of

Algerian life. However, as of early 1993, the

number of women employed outside the home

remained well below that of Tunisia and

Morocco.61

A new family code backed by conservative

Islamists and proposed in 1981 threatened to

encroach on these gains and drew the protest of61www.about.com

15

several hundred women. The demonstrations, held

in Algiers, were not officially organized by the

UNFA although many of the demonstrators were

members. The women's objections to the family

code were that the code did not contain

sufficient reforms. The debate over the family

code forced the government to withdraw its

proposal, but a conservative revision was

presented in 1984 and quickly passed by the APN

before much debate resurfaced. The 1981 proposal

had offered six grounds for divorce on the part

of the wife, allowed a woman to work outside the

home after marriage if specified in the marriage

contract or at the consent of her husband, and

imposed some restrictions on polygyny and the

conditions in which the wives of a polygynous

husband were kept.62

In the revised code, provisions for divorce

initiated by women were sharply curtailed, as

were the restrictions on polygyny, but the

minimum marriage age was increased for both

women and men (to eighteen and twenty-one,

respectively). In effect, however, although the

legalities were altered, little changed for most62 www.about.com

15

women. Further, it was argued, that the

enunciation of specific conditions regarding the

rights of the wife and the absence of such

specifications for the husband, and the fact

that women achieve legal independence only upon

marriage whereas men become independent at age

eighteen regardless of marital status,

implicitly underline women's inferior status.

Protest demonstrations were once again

organized, but, occurring after the fact (the

code had been passed on June 9), they had little

impact.

A number of new women's groups emerged in

the early 1980s, including the Committee for the

Legal Equality of Men and Women and the Algerian

Association for the Emancipation of Women, but

the number of women actively participating in

such movements remained limited. Fear of

government retaliation and public scorn kept

many women away from the women's groups. At the

same time, the government had become

increasingly receptive to the role of women in

the public realm. In 1984 the first woman

cabinet minister was appointed.63

63 www.about.com

15

Since then, the government has promised the

creation of several hundred thousand new jobs

for women, although the difficult economic

crisis made achievement of this goal unlikely.

When the APN was dissolved in January 1992, few

female deputies sat in it, and no women, in any

capacity, were affiliated with the HCE that

ruled Algeria in 1993, although seven sat on the

sixty-member CCN. The popular disillusionment

with the secular regime and the resurgence of

traditional Islamist groups threaten to further

hamper the women's movement, but perhaps no more

so than the patriarchal tradition of the

Algerian sociopolitical culture and the military

establishment that heads it.64

3.Algerian Women Writers:

Talking about literature of women in

Algeria is always a debate without an end,

because it is related with the Algerian society,

before all literature is an art and art as we

know needs freedom while the element of freedom

is not clear in Algeria especially concerning

women’s freedom. Writing before being just

language structure, is a way of expression and64 www.about.com

15

revelation, this getting more complex when

writings talk about what women suffer from in

the Algerian society. Houda Barakat said:

We write, we send these letters that are put in

a glazing and that glazing is thrown in sea (Researchers 1994, 224)

According to Houda Barakat, we can understand

that behind each writing there is a case, case

like, pain and sufferance that the writer feels

and no one else can see it. Concerning woman,

her first pain was looking for her respect,

existence, and thought with an independent way.

Jean Foyé (minister of justice in France) said:

Man derives his dignity and confidence his

work, while woman owes to her husband

(litterature20eme siecle textes et documents,bernard

If this statement came from an educated French

through her open society, the problem of woman

in Arab world would be deeper and more violence.

Djamila Zannir described the suicide of the poet

Safia Kettou in the magazine of Echourouk

ethakafi on Thursday, march 24th 1994 by saying:

15

This tragedy is a strong

message from a woman writer that

suffered from oppression and social

repression for nothing just she was

accused with the sin of writing

Some have said that a lot of writers

suicide for a national or political cases, so

why should we consider the suicide of Kettou a

message of her feminism? What was different for

a woman writer was her fight for her case that

was the case of half of the Algerian society.

Djamila Zannir was writing, and no one could see

her writings or supported her to keep writing,

she was the first woman who dare to break the

tradition of tribe in Djidjel, and her name was

mentioned in the Radio in the late 1960’s and

the beginning of 1970’s.65

If Djamila Zannir described her experience

with confidence and pain without using a style

of violence, the poet Zineb Elaawadj adopted a

situation full of provocation where she

described the Algerian society with the

65 Ahmed doughan,women voices in the modern algerian literature, 1982.

15

retardate and the ill. Concerning woman and

writing, she said:

a society full of cripple traditions,

oppression, and feudalism, it is a

society that works above a lot of

guiltless women bodies

(Zineb Elaawadj:1985,

51)

According to Zineb Elaawadj, Algerian man and

woman came across each other in a lot of cases

and situations except woman’s problems.

Using an Academic style, Zhour Wannissi

talked about this subject through her experience

when she said:

What I wanted to ask and narrate it

as a woman’s life and the events of a

nation sum-up what human in general

from his childhood to a ministry position,

in this part of Arab world in which woman

still that margin that is blessed or slaved66

66The same reference p54

15

In the meaning of this statement, woman is

still under the oppression of society and man.

Since the real appearance in the seventies

Algerian Arabic novel, was a novel written by

man not woman. Despite of the emerge of a lot of

women writers like Zoulikha Essaoudi and Zhour

Wannissi, no one supported them to continue

writing. The Algerian novelist Zoulikha Essaoudi

(1943-1972) died like if she didn’t exist, while

Zhour Wannissi was a minister during the period

of 1970’s, she was considered as the first

Algerian woman novelist. The period of seventies

witnessed the appearance of a lot of women

writers like Rabia Djelti, Zineb Elaawadj, Ahlem

Mostaghenmi, and women writers wrote in French

language like Taouass Amrouche, Assia Djebbar,

Leila Sabbar and Malika Mokaddem. Then, the

period of eighteens witnessed less appearance of

women writers; some of them were waiting for

liberation movement, this movement was under the

banner of communism. Algerian novel in Arabic

language waited the period of nineties to

broadcast the first novel by a woman writer, it

was Memory of Body by Ahlem Mostaghanemi, her

15

novel was written in Algeria but its success was

in the Arab orient. A lot of feminine names

appeared the late of 1990’s like Fadila Elfarouk

and her novel Teenager’s Mood. 67

The Black Period:

The period of 1990’s was a dark period for

Algerian literature where it was hard to care

about publishing and literature in general in

the bad conditions (civil war), but some women

writers could appear with a good and beautiful

works like Zahra Eddik in “ة� لإ اح�د ن$$� ي� ال�ج� or Chahrazad ”ف�Zaghaz in Home from Skulls.68

Malek Haddad’s award (now it is stopped) gave a

push to some Algerian women writers who won the

first place like Yasmine Salah in Sea of Silent and

Inaam Bayyoudh in Fish Don’t Care but the problem

was that they didn’t continue in writing except

Yasmine Salah who wrote a lot of novels, her

last one was Lakhdhar, the main reasons that they

didn’t continue were the absence of a lot of

women writers from the cultural view, civil war

67 www.elhayat.com.68 Ahmed doughan,women voices in the modern algerian literature, 1982.

15

or the absence of support (moral and material)

in addition to weakness of criticism movement.

Writing needs a lot of love and courage in

societies where woman is always under the mercy

of man. The struggle between woman and reality

or woman’s reality and what she writes about,

gives her novelistic writings a special

characteristics.69 There was a new generation of

women writers who were against the traditions

and society, a society who didn’t want them to

write like man. Mouna Chalabi wrote two novel

Tawachih El Ward and Ahdab El Khichya in an interview

with Elaklam Magazine said:

‘‘Who follows the writings of the

new generation of women novelists,

he can see easily that they are

looking for special characteristics in

the content but this succeed in

some cases, despite this, these

texts created different styles and

subjects’’.

69Ahmed doughan,women voices in the modern algerian literature, 1982.

15

According to Mouna Chalabi, the new generation

of women writers brought with them a new

experience with a new way.

Other women writers who preferred t write in

French language instead of Arabic. This

phenomenon stated with the novels of Sarah

Haydar , ة� ادق$$� ي�� �رسر� ة� ف$$� هق� ال�ع$$اب� ال�مخ$$ب�رة�,ش$$�� also, she wrote ام�خ$$ة� ل ح�� واص$$� ف�where she talked with total freedom and courage.

Hadjer Kouidri won second place in Tayyeb

Salah’s award of novel in 2012 by her novel ورس ن$$��

ا اش�� .(her first novel) ي��Some novels and women novelists oblige us to

deal with gender, its forms and problematic like

the novelist Zahra M’barek did in her novels Lan

Nabiaa El Om’r (ع ال�عمر ت� ب� ) and Zallat Kalb (لنR ث$$�� لب� ل$$ة� ق�� Dihiya(ر�Louize in Body Lives Inside Me ( ي� ن� س$$د ب��س$$كب� and I Will Threw (ج��

my Self in Front You ( ك¼ س$$$ي� ام�ام$$$� ف� دف� ب�� اق�� she talked about ,(ش$$$�life, a subject concerned with woman and man.70

70 Ahmed doughan,women voices in the modern algerian literature, 1982

15

With this new generation of women writers who

found a new novelistic view, it will witness

some kind of literary change where writing is

the first and the fundamental goal, while the

subject of woman and her problems, it becomes

just a memory.

4.Algerian Feminism in Algerian Women Novelists:

The twentieth century was considered a

century of modernity, transmission, and changes

in all fields it became a period of freedom and

liberation especially for women. Novels and

writings are the best way to express women’s

feelings and their feminism. Algerian novel

became stronger when woman entered the field of

writing; women proved their existence as

writers, not as a subject of man’s writing. From

this point, women novelist helped in the

development of the Algerian novel by giving a

special touch. No one can deny that novel helps

women writers to build and to form their

personality inside their writings, while man

cannot see woman as a consciousness thought, but

he can see her just as a body, and that’s what

almost all man’s works confirm, man in his works

15

obliged the woman to hide behind the wall of

traditions and a lot of veils of darkness, he

transformed woman to a merchandise, from this

the text that woman deal with is a combination

of death and life, present and past, and exist

and not exist …71

Algerian women voices in Algerian literature

were far from this field, that’s lead us to say

this literature is the baby of the sixties, more

specifically the baby of the seventies, except

novel which was absent till 1979 with the

appearance of Min Yawmiyyat Madrassa Hourra ( اب� وم�ي$$� م�نR ن��

by Zoulikha Essaoudi. The obvious thing in(م�درسة� ج�رة�the books that dealt with the subject of the

modern Algerian literature is the absence of

Algerian women writers except Zhour Wannissi and

that was just in few papers.72

Traditions were the first obstacle that

faced a lot of Algerian writers to appear or to

continue their writings, a lot of them used

nick-names instead of their real names, some of

71 Afif Ferradj, Freedom in Women’s Literature, 1975.72www.slideshare.net

15

them still write with these nick-names, a woman

novelist said in a literary interview answering

this issue: ‘a lot of…illiteracy, traditions and

veil’, this answer wasn’t in the fifties but in

1978. She is not the only one who confirmed

that, but it’s a common answer, also Meriem

Youness in an interview said: ‘my paths in this

beautiful town –Djidjel-were full of thistle and

obstacles, pain and oppression especially when I

started to write, but I didn’t give up I

resisted quietly, I am still waiting to have a

position among Algerian women novelists’.73

Despite the presence of Algerian woman in all

fields, and there is no one who can deny her

role and her rights, but this cannot justify the

difference between the real life and what is

written on papers, in other words, is there an

equation between theory and practice in this

field?.

Zhour Wannissi in her novel Errassif Ennaim in

1967, she gave the real image of the Algerian

people during revolution, she expressed the

sufferance and oppression of man, woman, and

73 El Aklam cultural magazine.

15

children. Zhour Wannissi included the Algerian

people in the war through her writings; in

Zaghroudat El Malayin we find the participation of

all members of family, including young girls and

women, also in Why doesn’t my mother afraid she did the

same thing. In The Beach, the presence of the

Algerian woman was obvious as a fighter, like

what she did with the role of Zahia in Women birth

pistols where Zahia’ fiancé asked Zahia to meet

Fatima in the hospital in order to deliver

weapons.74

In Behind wattle she gave the image of

Algerian woman as a responsible in a school

library in which she deals with schoolgirls

among them Nadjia who is the daughter of a

martyr, also El Khala Wardia who killed a French

soldier with her nails. In the previous novels

Zhour Wannissi mentioned the image of Algerian

woman as a fighter, while in novel of Soumia; she

mentioned the sufferance of Algerian woman from

a special problem, in Soumia, this woman novelist

characterized how Fatima birthed the fifth girl,

and how the house became sad because the father

74 www.oa.uottawa.ca

15

wanted a boy, the first day was full of anger,

the second day comes to discover that his

daughter Soumia is dead, here the father said:

‘she is gone like she came, she is gone with

name of girl’.75

The novel of The White Dress the problematic

was the social equation between the husband and

the wife, she wanted to say that man still the

controller even if it was on his own daughter,

and that’s what happened for Zahia in this

novel.76

In the novel of Those People Wannissi dealt

with an important subject which is the

domination of tradition and believes on women’s

freedom, this subject still one of the main

subjects in Algerian feminism, Zhour Wannissi

wrote about arranged marriage in the same family

even if the man and the woman are from different

social environment.77

If the first stories of Zhour Wannissi in

her first collection were speaking about the

Algerian woman as a fighter and patient, the75 Ahmed doughan,women voices in the modern algerian literature, 198276 Ahmed doughan,women voices in the modern algerian literature, 198277 Ahmed doughan,women voices in the modern algerian literature, 1982

15

second collection, she spoke about two main

dimensions; the first one was a national

militancy dimension, while the second one was a

social dimension that wasn’t clear in her first

collection, she continued her writings about the

Algerian woman who was liberated from the

colonization but she is still a prisoner of the

traditions and society.78

Getting to another type of stories of

Zoulikha Saaoudi ( ة� ال�س$$عودي� خ$$� ل�ت� which is the part of (ر�woman in the revolutionary struggle and the tax

paid by woman along this journey (in the story

of Who’s the Hero (طل ال�ن� Rم�ن) Rabiaa was vouchedand bear all types of torture just to maintain

her loyalty for the revolution, by the end she

discovered that all what she sacrificed to

others did not pay her any good since she was

left alone after Independent) 103 And if the

stories of (Zoulikha) –Althought its rare-

generally speaks about Feminine topics, and

gives the part of Algerian woman’s participation

in the Algeria Revolution, as militant and

78Ahmed doughan,women voices in the modern algerian literature, 1982

15

soldier in the revolution army, like in the

story (Who’s the Hero) (طل ال�ن� Rم�ن)or as the

daughter of a Martyr or his wife like in the

story Ardjouna ( ة� وي$$�� These stories gave a new . ،(ع�رح��perspective for the Algerian woman mostly for

her nationalism and loyalty for the revolution

and the struggle for freedom along with bearing

all kinds of pain and harm.79

As long as we tackled women writers and

the source of their writings which came from a

huge premonition of freedom and liberty,

Zoulikha had her opinion coming from her faith,

a faith which demands that the freedom of the

country come aside with the freedom of the

citizen, since this freedom is framed for the

obligation of traditions and patriotism.80

Zoulikha stated in an articla named:

Woman and Freedom.

A lot of our (Algerian) Girls do not

understand a bit of evolution and revolution but a

twisted meaning in which they use when ever came79 Ahmed doughan,women voices in the modern algerian literature, 1982

80 Ahmed doughan,women voices in the modern algerian literature, 1982

15

a chance to saying that the woman should be free

to advance….to be just like European woman…or

better…what do we need to advance like them…

the brain of our men still in need for a few more

strikes so it can recognize our rights

This picture taken from the writer’s

reality and it is presented and then answered it

showing the wrong concepts and the fake emblems

repeated by women in desperate need of modernity

and being daze by the west civilization. She

stated:

What can I put amide this fake and

rubbish eloquence but to say: each girl carries that

concept can never makes a noticeable serious

effort… or pictures the Algerian Woman… this girl

understands that liberty is wearing the new

fashion of cloths, speaking French and dancing in

wide streets not carrying about others since

anyone don’t like her can turn to the wall, this

shallow girl is an embarrassment in the path of

virtuous woman, and leads the fathers to think free

even in a certain limits. (105)

And she does not beleive in such picture of

woman, showing no compation for this model,

15

Really she does not represent us, but it rather

offends us, smudging all the white clean clothes

with dark spots, making the freedom of loyal

honest woman wasted in her blunder

But Zoulikha beleives in another picture of

Algerian woman,

I believe in a woman starting her best way

carrying her spirit and personality, struggeling for

her existence with all efforts, understanding the

real core of things around her, and most

importantly keeping the real value of a rich

evolution.

The third Algerian model of Algerian

women writers is Djamila Zennir, started first

with poetry and ended up writing novels because

she believed that poems cannot express her

feelings and does not digest her inside

emotional believes, so she directed her writing

toward Novels which gave her freedom of speech

and more liberty of expression .81

81 Ahmed doughan,women voices in the modern algerian literature, 1982

15

Zennir lived harsh times during her enterance to

writing field she stated:

I grew up in a choking environment where

everything led to death and created it. But instead

of backing down, I managed to dig my own path

and I did it alone, although the siege community I

run toward light hopping to hug it and I am still

running enlightening my modest literal path.

she pictured the woman as in her

story « The moon Shall Not Rise » in a negative

aspect, Fatima the main character of the story

fell in love with her cousin and he loved her

too, then he left to France and got married

there, while she kept waiting for him, and she

waited a long time to know about his marriage by

a message sent to his parent telling them he

shall come this year.82

The tragic end of this story reflects women’s

situation,

The story did not end by Fatima’s run away at

a dark night but no one knew where she went but

82 Ahmed doughan,women voices in the modern algerian literature, 1982

15

for sure she left to a dark prison of lonely life which

is the only known place for such escape

“Love in Wadia Village” published on

1977, where she wrote mostly about her

character, the active school girl who

transformed and changed suddenly because of her

cousin when she delivered him a message from a

young woman (her mistress) which contained an

engagement refusal to which he demands first.83

Another sad ending for her character, where she

was set apart from her lover by the order of his

family and he was to be married to another girl

while she committed suicide. From this story we

can notice that the writer is aiming to reveal

one of numerous social diseases among her own

society where the woman is the first victim. It

is also a must to recall the feminine characters

used by Zennir in her novels; this is a strong

confirmation of her interest in her own gender

not for the sake of prejudice but rather meant

83

Ahmed doughan,women voices in the modern algerian literature, 1982

15

to be a message to show her support for women in

their rightful causes.84

At the same time, we must mention the existence

of other writers especially those who belongs to

the young generation and came after a wave of

literary explorers (men and women) long time

across the Algerian story and novel. Young women

writers like Ahlam Moustaghanmi and her famous

novel Dhakirat Al-Jassad (Memory in the Flesh).

Dhakirat Al-Jasad (Memory in the Flesh),

published simultaneously in Algeria and Lebanon

in 1993, and presently in its tenth printing, is

the first novel written by an Algerian woman in

Arabic. Its author, Ahlam Mosteghanemi, received

her BA in Arabic literature from the University

of Algiers in 1973, and was awarded a doctorate

in sociology from the Sorbonne in 1982. Her

doctorate dissertation was published in Paris in

1985, under the title Algerie: Femmes ET

écriture (Algeria: Women and Writing), and

introduced by Jacques Berque. Ahlam Mosteghanemi

has also published other literary works,

84 Ahmed doughan,women voices in the modern algerian literature, 1982

15

including two volumes of poetry entitled 'Ala

Marfa' Al-Ayyam (On the Haven of Days) and Al-

Kitaba fi Lahzat 'Uriyy (Unveiled Instant of

Writing); and more recently a novel entitled

Fawdat Al-Hawas (Anarchy of Senses).85

Her novel decolonizes on two levels: it

reappropriates Algerian history and presents the

ravages of colonialism from the point of view of

its victims; and also she writes in the language

of the victims with passion and mastery. But the

novel is not only about the Algerian struggle

against foreign domination, it is also about the

complex post-independence problems facing the

emerging nation. Ahlam Mosteghanemi exposes,

with a postcolonial awareness, the

disappointments, deviations and displacements of

revolutionary ideals. However, she does not

dwell on these social and political predicaments

directly; she uses them as a narrative framework

for the passionate affair between Khaled, the

militant middle-aged Algerian, who turns to

painting after losing his left arm in the

struggle, and Hayat, the fiction writer and the

85 wikipedia

15

young daughter of his friend, the mujahid

(freedom fighter) Si Al-Taher.86

Mosteghanemi is remarkable in her ability

to embody convincingly a male voice who

constructs this extraordinary tale of passion,

and as Abdel-Moneim Tallima commented, "Ahlam

Mosteghanemi goes beyond the common notions of

the masculine and the feminine to present a

humane horizon." As she said in an interview,

she opted for a male narrator, partly because

she did not want to be classified under the

label of "womanist writing", and partly because

she wanted to cover episodes in the political

history of Algeria in which men were

instigators. Her new novel, Fawdat Al-Hawas has

a woman narrator, and is clearly a literary and

historical sequel to the first, magnificent part

of a trilogy.87

Conclusion:

86Ahlam Mosteghanmi, Dahkirat Al-Jassad 199387 Ahlam Mosteghanmi, Dahkirat Al-Jassad 1993

15

Women aims to recover the huge gap between the

theoretical concept and the real effective

exercise among their society, by overstepping

the silence of woman, this struggle inside the

writer, amid the partly denial in some cases or

the complete protest in others’ and a third

attitude contains more objectivity, rationality

and intellectual, artistic maturity all

together.

All this leads us to a three phases division of

the Algerian women writings, each characterized

differently from the other:

The first phase portrayed as an imitation of the

traditional literal way of production, the

second phase differs from the first but only in

the matter of the social role of members and a

bit of critical incitation. In this case we find

the Algerian women writings which remained in

the two phases like Men’s literary writings but

it differs a bit about concentration of women

and feminine topics, devoting topics containing

women’s situation in society along with their

sufferance and pain as being female, citizen and

15

a human being aiming to reveal injustice and

affirming their identity.

The third and final phase is completely

different with the existence of women writings

way beyond the stage of direct protest, getting

to a serious attempt to find the true identity

combined with the overcoming of the social

reaction, in a way to get to the real meaning of

women’s freedom and liberty.

General Conclusion:

Algerian literature in general witnessed

a lot of changes, especially the Algerian novel

with both languages Arabic and French. Despite

the use of French language at the beginning

because of the colonialism, the Algerian novel

of French expression is a pure Algerian novel.

Novelists like Mohammed Dib, Malek Haddad, Kateb

Yacine…are Algerian writers with French

education and Algerian heart and thought.

Algerian novel with both languages dealt with a

15

lot of subjects and situations especially the

Algerian Revolution, life and death, society

with its problems, love, and women.

There are some critics who said that there

is an Algerian women literature, but they forgot

that Algeria is stronger and powerful with her

women, women who participated in the war and

gave the precious thing ‘life’ and they birthed

heroes. Women participated in the war, and then

they participated in the period of

reconstruction after the independence by writing

and expressing the society, and the oppressed

woman. They made a position in the Arab world

literature and the western literature, like

Ahlem Mustaghanemi, her novel Memory in the flesh was

translated to English language, and a lot of

Algerian women writers like Djamila Zannir,

Zhour Wannissi...

The subject of the Algerian woman was the

main subject of Algerian women writers and few

men novelists; they dealt with her position in

the society, her relation with man inside her

family and in her environment. Algerian novelist

gave the image of woman as a fiancé, wife,

15

mother, daughter, grandmother…and as a

responsible. They showed that the problems of

woman cannot be separated from man’s problems.