Lecture a contre-fil de la captivite, litterature marocaine feminine des annees 1990

Abstract

ABSTRACT Re-Reading Captivity in the Works of Three Moroccan Women Novelists of the 90s The key objective of this research is to explore new ways of reading the central theme of captivity in the novels of three Moroccan women writers of the 90s: Fatiha Boucetta's Anissa captive (1991), Sebti Fadéla's Moi Mireille lorsque j'étais Yasmina (1995), and Rachida Yacoubi's Ma vie mon cri (1995). This thesis argues that patriarchal Moroccan society can not be taken as the sole signifier of captivity in the writings of Moroccan women of the 90s. A close analysis of Anissa captive reveals that space is very important in providing another signifier of the protagonist's captivity. The heroine in this novel lived in different geographic and social spaces; therefore the theme of captivity can not refer to one space only, Morocco, as analyzed by critics. In Moi Mireille, lorsque j'étais Yasmina, lawyer Fadela Sebti fictionalizes the story of a French woman who marries a Moroccan man and moves to his hometown of Casablanca. The French woman is portrayed as the victim of a traditional Moroccan family and repudiated by her husband. Behind the story of the humiliation of repudiation there is another narrative that traces the close relation between France and Morocco through the history of colonialism. This second story talks about two different spaces, two different captives, a woman named Mireille and a man named Nadir. Ma vie, mon cri, is an autobiographical novel about a bourgeois woman who puts an end to her captivity in domestic space, and chooses poverty and freedom. Soon, she dominates public space and becomes a business woman and a writer. My research findings based on the analysis of space and captivity provide a significant addition to existing knowledge in the new field of literature written by women in Morocco.