المقدس والمدنس في الرواية النسوية الجزائرية
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Date
2023
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جامعة عباس لغرور خنشلة
Abstract
Abstract:
Novel literature is one of the most prominent literary genres practiced by Arab women writers. They have used it as a window for self-expression and critique of the other, often embodied in the figure of a man who represents a dominant central system that venerates all social, cultural institutions as being subject to its authority, while relegating women to a subordinate, marginal position. This has given rise to a symbolic culture that oppresses women, physically, culturally, and socially. Examining the historical symbolic structure that has shaped the image of women in the male-dominated mentality, one can observe that women are portrayed as a different, weaker gender, which the male system strives to exclude from all its hierarchical institutions. These underlying beliefs primarily stem from the idea of marginalizing and suppressing women in favor of building the male's personal power, dominance over history, and control over social, cultural, and symbolic institutions. Consequently, women are depicted negatively, with a subordinated status that lacks the concept of woman as a human being.
Arab women writers have not remained passive in the face of the exclusion and suppression imposed on them by patriarchal social and cultural structures. Instead, they have drawn from Western modernist thought through feminism. Feminism has emerged as a literary movement in Arabic narrative, allowing Arab women novelists to reflect their oppressed social, cultural, and political realities. Feminism is an intellectual movement through which women challenged the institutions of the male-dominated system and its central authorities. Gender, as introduced by Simone de Beauvoir in her book "The Second Sex," served as a key concept in dismantling male-oriented values and the subsequent marginalization of women. Arab women writers have effectively employed deconstruction in their creative and narrative works, exposing the practices of the patriarchal system in traditional Arab societies. They penetrated the sacred and profane spheres by deconstructing male narratives and undermining institutions that had long sanctioned male dominance over women. Thus, feminist literature has evolved beyond being just a narrative space for female authors to express themselves; it has transformed into a discourse that challenges sacred boundaries of gender, politics, and religion that were imposed on women.
In the early 1950s, Arab literary scene, especially in the realm of novel writing, witnessed the emergence of female authors who were influenced by Western literary achievements. These writers distinguished their narratives with themes of resistance and rebellion, akin to figures such as Colette Khoury, Nawal El Saadawi, Ghada Al-Samman, and others. Their writing boldly delved into the forbidden realms of social, cultural, and religious structures. They aimed to unveil the oppression exerted by the patriarchal system through its various references, confining women to the role of the second sex, ensnared in various forms of restrictions and exclusion.
A researcher in the archaeology of Algerian feminist literature finds that Algerian women writers have followed the path of Arab female authors who reject the dominant social and cultural order. They have employed writing as a means to disrupt the patriarchal norms prevalent in Algerian society. They endeavored to expose the hidden, desecrate the sacred, and challenge the concepts of the hierarchical system that privileges men, while excluding women from participation and decision-making. Algerian women writers have employed bold narrative language to expose various forms of male authority and dominance. They have utilized deconstruction as their primary tool to break free from the clutches of society and its patriarchal institutions that have suppressed their rights. This deconstruction challenges all the sacred concepts that men have historically employed to exert control and dominance over women.
These women writers have recognized that their freedom and emancipation lie in reclaiming their bodies, which have long been held captive within the strongholds of male-oriented concepts, viewing women as mere vessels of desire and pleasure, into which men emptied their lust and primal desires without regard for women's feelings and individual existence. Algerian women writers have also questioned the concepts of the religious establishment, which they consider biased in favor of men and serving to exclude and marginalize women. They have criticized the imposition of concepts such as veiling and control, viewing women as symbols of sensuality and sin. These writers have sought to undermine the political discourse of power after independence, accusing political institutions of corruption and opportunism. They have also addressed the role of fundamentalist movements in perpetuating violence and terrorism, holding them responsible for the security crisis in Algeria in the 1990s. Through their narratives, Algerian women writers have managed to address these realms that had long been monopolized by the male discourse, considered sacred and off-limits for discussion, as they served as references for male authority and control over women.
In light of these considerations, we have explored the manifestations of the sacred and the profane in Algerian feminist literature. We have chosen a set of novels that collectively form a discourse aimed at undermining the sacred and the profane within their texts. These novels reflect a spirit of rebellion, as seen in "Mood of an Adolescent" by Fadila Al-Farouk, and "The Rebel" by Malika Mokadem, and "The Gateway of Memories" by Asia Jabar.
The research question of this study is framed as follows:
In the Algerian feminist narrative discourse, the body is present as an important axis formed by the ideological background of the female novelists, as talking about it is considered a violation of the social and cultural sanctity that is dominated by male thought. So how was the Algerian feminist writer able to penetrate the sanctity of the female body? What are the representations of this liberated body in the narrative texts under study?
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Algerian female novelists benefited from postmodern thought, which calls for breaking ready-made templates, rejecting stereotyping, and elevating the voice of the margins. To what extent was the Algerian feminist novel able to review comprehensive cultural perceptions about women? What is the Algerian writer’s position on the sacred and its existing social, religious, and political institutions?
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How was the Algerian feminist novel able to question the masculine ideological discourses that rely on historical references to establish their authority over women and men alike?
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Is the Algerian novelist’s attempt to undermine and desecrate the sacred an attempt on her part to form a different narrative text? Or is it just an undermining of the man’s authority and his symbolic references.
This study aims to explore the issues of the sacred and the profane in Algerian feminist literature by delving into liberated aspects of women's lives (including the body, sexual relationships, religion and its legal institutions, political discourse, and parental ideologies). The objective is to subvert patriarchal structures that use the sacred as a tool for dominance and power over women. Algerian feminist literature has rebelled against social, political, and religious structures to achieve ontological independence beyond male paradigms. It focuses on centralizing the female perspective by adopting post-modernist discourse and feminist liberation concepts.
The study employs a descriptive-analytical methodology and utilizes feminist criticism to uncover the manifestations of the sacred and the profane in Algerian feminist narrative. The research examines a selected set of novels under investigation. The research structure is as follows: introduction, where the main research question is presented, along with the desired objectives. It then proceeds with a preliminary chapter, discussing the concepts of the sacred and the profane. These concepts represent an ontological manifestation of religious and cultural norms in the society in which individuals live. The sacred and the profane are constructed based on the majority's adherence to these norms, which makes individuals develop their own binaries, including that of sacred and profane.
The study also explores the concept of feminist literature and the stages of its development, including the themes addressed in each stage. It highlights how feminist literature evolved, particularly with Western modernist influences and feminist movement ideologies. The research then delves into the problem of feminist literature in Arab criticism, with some scholars questioning its terminology and acceptance in the Arab literary scene.
Finally, the study investigates the relationship between the sacred and the profane and Arab feminist literature. It argues that the penetration of feminist literature into the sacred and the rebellion against all its references are significant markers in feminist storytelling. This is a stepping stone towards embracing feminist liberation concepts, enabling female authors to venture into the sac red’s uncharted territory. It breaks its exclusivity and reimagines its implications on human, ideological, political, and social levels. This feminist boldness aims to emancipate women from the entanglements of patriarchal thinking and secure their personal and external freedom within the framework of the feminist writing project adopted by the new woman. Algerian women novelists have drawn their contemporary liberation ideas from feminist thought, attempting to establish a distinct feminist narrative that reinterprets the past for a better understanding of the present and the construction of the future. They do so by subverting central patriarchal concepts and subjecting them to scrutiny, with the aim of creating a space that advocates gender justice, believing in equality between men and women, seeking to breach taboos to liberate themselves from the clutches of male symbolic culture.
The feminist author has managed to utilize the foundations of modernity and feminism, which seek liberation by breaking conventions and traditions. Her narrative has become an act of violation against the sacred in itself. Therefore, we cannot separate the ideological content of feminist literary discourse from the theories of the feminist movement and its liberation ideas on various levels and fields. The narrative can no longer be restricted by fixed and centralized ideas in writing. Instead, it challenges cultural and symbolic structures that have long been employed by male thinking to legitimize its dominance and authority over women.
The terms of male consciousness and aesthetics have dominated the history of Arab literature, making man the focal point of its structure and, consequently, the foundation of its culture. This male-oriented culture has placed a phallic idea at the core of organizing various societal relationships and oppressing the other, which is women. The writings of Arab women, especially those who venture into the sacred, aim to confine and advocate for their issues. They strive to fulfill their aspirations as creative individuals and push forward the feminist cause that seeks to challenge difference and the uniqueness in their creative narrative texts. This involves breaking taboos and liberating themselves from the constraints of patriarchal thinking.
Feminine creativity has moved beyond the biological differences between men and women and has adopted gender concepts ingrained in society's behavior, social norms, culture, education, and literature. Consequently, feminist writing is intrinsically linked to gender issues, which it serves by adopting positions of diversity and individuality in its creative narrative texts. This involves penetrating the forbidden and challenging it because it does not consider the female perspective and shackles women with various constraints and barriers.
The heart of modernity lies in the continuous violation of norms and the ongoing desecration of conventions and traditions. It establishes a space for creativity that exists outside the prevailing narrative. This space rejects conventions that were formerly dominant and replaces them with the values of feminist liberation and post-modernist thought. Thus, feminism has become a vital driving force for the feminist narrative, challenging established norms and promoting female empowerment and liberation.
The first chapter of the study is titled "The Feminine Body Between the Sacred and the Profane in the Archaeology of Algerian Feminist Narrative Discourse." It delves into the celebration of the female body by Algerian feminist literature and the unveiling of the falseness of male-centric concepts that have minimized the existence of women within the body. These concepts have been confined within the framework of male-dominated references. The female body has become a fundamental criterion through which the social and cultural system enforces male dominance, primarily through the biological distinction between genders, i.e., between the male body and the female body. This attempt to exclude and belittle the female body has been orchestrated by the male hegemony. It aims to maintain control by emphasizing this biological distinction, effectively marginalizing the female body. This has been perpetuated by the retrogressive legacy and its various sources, which have formed the capital of male thought. Additionally, there is another perspective of the female body associated with desire. It is seen as a reflection of a one-sided male desire that focuses on elevating the male self and regarding women as mere tools for male pleasure or commodities for trade, including sexual satisfaction.
The feminist thought aimed at a different pattern of liberated writing that allowed the female body to undermine what the male linguistic structure has traditionally regarded as the most prominent ideology. Feminism has placed the woman's issues at the center of the struggle against male culture and its dominant symbolic authority. This resulted in a call to pay attention to feminist writing addressing women's issues, both intellectually and physically. Women wrote using their bodies to undermine the male patriarchal cultural and linguistic hegemony that had marginalized the female body. From Western feminist thought emerged a revolution of liberating the female body in feminist narratives.
In feminist literature, the body has been associated with its adventures and intimate relationships. It has been celebrated as a significant theme that feminist narratives have managed to penetrate. This body-centered narrative has unveiled the everyday life of women and defied societal norms and values, specifically those imposed by male-dominated ideas. Thus, the concept of the body, as seen in feminist writing, transformed into a cultural and ideological perspective. This perspective emphasizes the need to establish the female presence in thought and literature and redefines the centrality of the female body.
With its sensitivity and unique cultural and symbolic specificity, the female body has become a central component of feminist writing, forming the main identity and character of this discourse. If pure feminine experience is one of the main features of feminist writing, then the female body is the primary source of inspiration for women's writing. Feminine awareness of the realities surrounding a woman's body naturally compels her to write about it.
In Algerian feminist narrative discourse, the body appeared as a crucial theme shaped by the ideological background of female novelists. Discussing the body was considered a violation of the social and cultural sacred norms highly protected by male-oriented thinking. It was classified within the male-centric societal structure as a moral crime, and it entered the realm of forbidden topics and the hidden worlds of women. Addressing such topics was seen as a threat to moral values. In the presence of the body, narrative discourse becomes a linguistic counterpart to the liberated body's state, and words take on a new, symbolic meaning. Thus, Algerian female novelists managed to penetrate the sexual sacredness by tackling the theme of the body, attempting to explore themselves and their external world, all while wielding the power of narrative, the ability to produce, penetrate, and create.
Writing about the body is considered one of the taboo topics that troubles the conscience of writers. It falls within the forbidden and prohibited realms of women. Writing about sexual and intimate relationships, especially those with a physical dimension, is fraught with adventure and is surrounded by prohibitions that capture the female body under the oppressive patriarchal system. In Algerian feminist narrative discourse, the body becomes a pivotal theme as shaped by the ideological background of female novelists. Discussing the body was considered a violation of the social and cultural sacred norms highly protected by male-oriented thinking. It was classified within the male-centric societal structure as a moral crime, and it entered the realm of forbidden topics and the hidden worlds of women. Addressing such topics was seen as a threat to moral values.
The feminist movement has critically viewed religious institutions as part of the male-centric structures that hinder women's development and contribute to their intellectual, cultural, and physical suppression. This has led to the emergence of feminist movements that reject central concepts and the belief that religion has historically been seen from a male perspective. Furthermore, they criticize the methods and forms of this domination and means of oppression. In this context, criticism is directed at the religious system in conservative Arab societies.
Feminism looks at religious institutions as one of the manifestations of male dominance that restrict women, leading to feminist movements aiming to liberate women from these constraints and reinterpret religious texts from a perspective that challenges the male-biased interpretations. Western feminist movements have given rise to various approaches that call for reinterpreting religious texts away from the male-centered interpretive tradition or what is known as the criticism of religious hermeneutics.
The Algerian feminist narrative discourse attempts to break down the barriers set by religious beliefs that govern women's lives. It aims to explore the female identity, the world outside the confines of religious teachings, and the power of narrative to produce, penetrate, and create. In this context, writers have often challenged religious beliefs and symbols, even those at the core of Islamic doctrine, which are considered sacred.
Feminist novelists in Algeria have also tackled issues related to religious practices, such as the practice of wearing the veil (hijab), with some writers viewing it as a source of oppression that confines women both physically and culturally. In some cases, writers have even used satire and mockery to address this topic.
The feminist narrative discourse in Algeria does not stop at questioning religious beliefs and practices but also extends to the political sphere. Algerian female writers have attempted to challenge the male-dominated official and unofficial political discourse. They unveil images of conflict and contradiction between political power and the intellectual, social, and political oppression experienced by intellectuals. This conflict has resulted in writers adopting a veiled language that critiques the reality they live in, exposing practices that are often silenced and used to silence and subdue them. Female writers have ventured into the domains of official and unofficial political discourse and have refrained from adhering to the norms of power, criticizing its dominant ideologies and ambiguous speeches.
This challenge to the forbidden and the constraints imposed by political power signals a change in the traditional gender hierarchy. It challenges the status quo and raises important questions about the role of women in society, highlighting their intellectual and creative capacities and their determination to resist patriarchal systems and strive for equality and justice.
As well as experiencing all forms of extremist fundamentalist currents that posed a direct threat to its existence, identity, and its liberated feminist ideology, the feminist writer in her novels went beyond the phase of political and patriarchal sanctity to penetrate the political and intellectual inaccessibility represented by the extremist religious thought with its violent ideological expressions and practices. She also addressed the political violence and terrorism practiced by armed groups and attempted to expose their intellectual system in the exclusion of others in the name of the religious discourse, in which the feminist narrative considered women victims of it and portrayed them as victims of extremist ideological thought, which was practiced by the fundamentalist movement in Algeria since the beginning of the nineties, and then their exclusion by killing at the hands of extremists. Thus, she appears in a world full of suffering, sometimes trying to rebel against it, with the man standing behind the oppression of women, taking all the institutions of intellectual and cultural oppression. This chapter branched into three sections: The first section was titled 'Doubting the Legitimacy of Political Discourse of the Authority after Independence,' in which we discussed the Algerian feminist narrative's stance on political power and the governance system in Algeria after gaining independence. It also attempted to undermine the revolutionary legitimacy, behind which some opportunists in the ruling party were hiding, represented by the National Liberation Front. The second section was titled 'The Algerian Feminist Narrative,' and it exposed the violence and extremism. It addressed the narrative's stance on the security crisis in Algeria, which carries an ideological dimension against fundamentalist movements, holding them responsible for violence and terrorism. It also attributed part of the responsibility to the existing authority due to the accumulation of social and economic crises in the country without finding radical solutions, which fueled extremism and terrorism. The third section was titled 'Undermining the Male Patriarchal System.' In this section, we analyzed the stance of Algerian female novelists towards the prevailing patriarchal system and accused it of racism, male bias, and the exclusion of women. It's a system built on oppression and tyranny in the eyes of Algerian female novelists. Finally, in the conclusion of the research, we discussed the main results obtained through the approach of the sacred and the profane in Algerian feminist novels by analyzing the novels: 'Mood of a Teenager' by Fadhila Al-Farouk, 'The Rebel' by MalekkaMokadem, and 'The Gateway of Memories' by Asia Jabaar. Wearrived at a range of results:
1. Postmodernist Influence: Algerian feminist narrative benefited from postmodernist thought, which encourages breaking away from preconceived molds, rejecting stereotypes, and raising marginalized voices. It aimed to comprehensively challenge and change the prevailing negative stereotypes of women that were perpetuated by patriarchal mindsets and general cultural structures. The narrative also utilized deconstruction to undermine conventional beliefs and questioned power and knowledge structures. It criticized political, religious, and social institutions and reinterpreted Algerian history to expose hidden patterns that governed its production, aiming to challenge all ideological discourses relying on historical references to legitimize their authority over both men and women.
2. Emphasis on the Female Body: The body was central to Algerian feminist writers' creative work as it represents the self in both its material and moral aspects. Writers focused on reclaiming and liberating it from the crucible of male concepts. They recognized that freedom was tied to liberating the female body. The revelation of the veiled body signified a transformation in cultural norms, making disclosure no longer sinful but rather liberating. The portrayal of the female body depicted a rebellion against psychological and social oppression women experienced under patriarchal and paternalistic structures. Nevertheless, it turned into a pornographic revolution when they delved into explicit sexual relationships, which deviated from the feminist ideals of freedom. 3. Ideological Themes: Algerian feminist novels addressed controversial issues that defied conventional norms and religious principles. They tackled topics that were considered taboo and profane, as they deviated from the sacred values and references. These topics included sexual liberation, undermining traditional values, and the cultural invasion of Algerian society. Western modernity, with its discourses on sexual freedom and rejection of religious restrictions, influenced these feminist narratives. They used these themes to question, deconstruct, and reconstruct religious and cultural references to serve women's interests and freedom.
4. Critique of Religious Authorities: The feminist narrative sought to undermine religious references by doubting religious symbols or refusing to follow religious rituals and principles. This was in line with Western feminist approaches that regarded religious systems as biased in favor of men and suppressive of women. Consequently, they believed that religious texts needed deconstructive readings and the creation of a feminist religious system aligned with women's interests and freedom.
5. Resistance to Extremist Ideologies: Algerian feminist novels boldly confronted the extremist fundamentalist political discourse, which posed an ontological and ideological threat to educated women in Algeria. They aimed to expose the regressive ideological system of these extremist movements that enforced suppression and used extremist fatwas to silence feminist voices. The feminist narrative rejected Islamic fundamentalism as a form of political and religious authority, which sought to impose the veil on Algerian women and enforce religious control. Feminist writers rebelled by refusing to wear the hijab and by standing up for unveiled women, even in the face of aggression. 6. Political Awareness of Algerian Feminist Writers: Algerian feminist writers demonstrated a highly conscious approach in their criticism of male-dominated political institutions. They exhibited a radical feminist awareness, addressing the pressing issues in Algerian society, which was politically, socially, and economically distressed. They advocated for establishing political institutions based on a solid social foundation that centralizes the role of women and enables them to break free from the constraints of male-dominated decision-making.
7. Challenging Political and Religious Authorities: In the political dimension, Algerian feminist literature examined the entities in which political and religious authority overlapped. The feminist narratives attempted to dismantle the power these institutions held over religion while serving the cause of women's freedom. This is notably evident in the portrayal of the election institution in the novel "Mood of Adolescence" by Fadila Al-Farouk, where the writer sought to expose the fundamentalist ideology in imposing its authority on the female protagonist and eliminating her freedom of choice.
8. Addressing Social and Political Issues from a Religious Perspective: Some Algerian feminist literary texts delved deeply into social and political issues viewed from a religious standpoint. They considered society, politics, and Sharia (Islamic law) as an integrated system. In some cases, these narratives criticized the patriarchal system with the aim of rejecting the religious structure to break free from the authority it held.
9. Varied Forms of the Sacred and Profane: Algerian feminist literature did not limit itself to one particular representation of the sacred and the profane. Some texts incorporated various forms, where the political intersected with the religious, or the political intersected with the social, or the religious intersected with the social, within a single feminist narrative.
These points provide further insight into how Algerian feminist literature grapples with complex sociopolitical issues, challenging both male-dominated structures and religious authorities while examining the intersections of the sacred and the profane in society. If you have any more questions or require specific details, please feel free to ask.