Sites of Lost Memory
Malika Mokeddem and the Necessity of Writing
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4480796 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Timothy J Reis, Timothy J Reiss (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2001 |
| Volume | 67 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 81-99 |
| Publication date | 2001-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Thesis Eleven (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0725-5136 • E-ISSN: 1461-7455 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0725513601067000006 |
| OpenAlex | W2032608989 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 2 |
The Algerian writer Malika Mokeddem embeds her novels in the geography of a desert that belongs ever more to the past of the nomadic immediate ancestors of her main characters. Object of nostalgic yearning, this desert past and the nomads peopling it also necessitate flight, especially for women, trapped there in a patriarchal culture and society whose violence has been perpetuated into that of contemporary Algeria - also often aimed against women. Besides a few strong older women able to take advantage of their age and status to help their juniors, these novels principally set on stage young women or girls whose accidental or perilously self-willed access to education and - above all, writing - frees them from binding traditions even while, for most, such writing is akin to the nomadic traveling of their ancestors (as `writing' on the desert's very body). Even so, because it is a revolt against such traditions, their writing is the site and actuality of fraught struggle and pushes them into the `nomadism' of literal exile, across seas themselves often envisaged as wider deserts
Accidental · Art · Linguistics · Literature · Political science · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Anthropology · Caribbean and African Literature and Culture · Gender Studies · History · Law · North African History and Literature · Philosophy
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |