La Soif D’assia Djebar : Pour Un Nouveau Roman Maghrébin

Abstract

French 20 th century literary modernism, certainly Nouveau Roman, emphasized the death of as a defining trait of novels written from 1948 to 1968. Critics often faulted French New Novelists of period for lacking socio-cultural and political commitment. What is most sure is that French New Novel of 1950s represents a body of literature that founded a new narrative voice which melded subject with its environment as never before. This “fragmented subject” was born from two world wars, atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, genocide of 6 million under Nazis’ regime, and emergence of armed struggles against colonialism. The introspective, descriptive form of narration, found present in works of New Novelists Robbe-Grillet, Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor, Claude Ollier, among others, was also influenced by absurdist theatre, prose and French existentialist philosophy of mid-20 th century. The characteristics of new novel are many, yet what stands out most about literary goals of genre is author’s 1) questioning or probing of a troubled identity that is fragmented and “fused” with its environment; 2) a manipulation of narrative time through use of flashbacks, flash forwards, palimpsests; 3) importance of objects over humans and bitterness of Man in capitalist societies where objects have become defining weight on conscious of individual; and 4) questioning of viability of literary word as a means to communicate reality of Man while industrialization is increasingly encroaching on his environment and sense of human being-in-the-world . I argue in this paper that advent of French Nouveau Roman as a radical mode of narrative representation also influenced development of a certain, unique literary “North African modernism” in 1950s. Maghrebi authors, particularly Algerian writing in French in 1950s, such as Mohamed Dib, Kateb Yacine, Mouloud Mammeri, and Assia Djebar present marginalized characters, cast out from their environments, as they also try to navigate in an era that was violently transforming as France’s colonial empire came to an end. I will make case in this paper that Assia Djebar’s first work, La Soif , published in 1957 when she was only 20, is exemplary of themes mentioned above which make up overall 20 th century modernist literary project of 1950s. Often criticized because she did not address raging, anti-colonial struggle taking place in Algeria at time, Djebar’s work should be studied as one that focuses on “tentative processes by which a young woman achieves a sense of self through her relationship with others”. [i] Reflection on Franco-Algerian war of independence is absent from this novel due to literary mode in which Djebar was working and which was characteristic of 1950s. Her modernist novel reflects psychological introspection that characterized most novels of era. The introspection and internal monologues throughout novel provide a means for young, female protagonist to establish her subjectivity in an environment of rapid transformation. Djebar captures essence of an Algerian woman emerging into a new way of being. Her protagonist, Nadia, explores principal, existential Sartrian question asked in novels by writers of French expression writing in 1950s: To what extent can an individual remain disconnected from responsibility of taking action in societies that call on authors to construct social conscious of their era? [i] -Jane Hiddleston. Assia Djebar: Out of Algeria . (Liverpool: Liverpool Press, 2006), 23.