Voice and Power Writing as Resistance and Decolonial Agency in Assia Djebar’s Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade (1985)

Abstract

This study investigates the representation of Algerian women during the French-Algerianwar in Assia Djebar’s Fantasia: an Algerian Cavalcade (1985). The dissertation arguesthat the novel gives a truthful portrayal of how women were, and still are, treated inAlgeria during colonial and post-colonization. , the main questions asked are how Algerianwomen faced various types of patriarchy during that time? , and how they affirm theiridentity despite all obstacles of male domination? , the thesis discusses the issue of Frenchlanguage use and the importance of its use to culture transmission. The author deals withthe issues of otherness, identity, in relation to patriarchy and double oppression suffered byAlgerian women from; both Algerians nationals and the colonial French authorities. Usingpostcolonial feminist approach. The main objectives of this study is to demonstrate howDjebar uncovers the truth of brutality of the French colonialist towards Algerian womenand challenges them to give the muted women voices, as well showing various types ofAlgerian women resistance against French colony beside their crucial rules during the war.This study also takes on an autobiographical critical approach as it demonstrates the extentto which Djebar was affected by the French language-due to her French educational system– which challenged and affected its Arab(ic) language and identity. Djebar’s dissatisfactionwith the French language appears throughout the novel. Djebar as a feminist writer,succeeds to reveal women’s oppression through the novel and record their resistance andpower, which French colonialism tried to bury into the hidden history pages. Throughoutthe novel, as the dissertation demonstrates, Djebar tries to challenge the images ofpatriarchy and give women opportunities to talk and express their views. By the end theresearch come to one conclusion; that regardless of the differences in the conditions ofwomen in the third world, they all suffered from extreme patriarchy.