"Women of Algiers in Their Apartments"

Paper Summary:

The paper examines "Women of Algiers in Their Apartments", a collection of short stories which illustrates how the women in Algerian society are imprisoned by custom and search for their freedom. The paper identifies the fundamental theme of this book, that these Muslim women are still cultural prisoners. The paper discusses how Djebar uses the painting of Delacroix entitled "The Forbidden Gaze, Severed Sound" to symbolize the mentality and the state of mind of the women in coping with their plight. The paper also looks at how the story illustrates the meaning of the harem society in Algeria.

From the Paper:

"The book is a collection of three long stories, three short ones, and a theoretical essay depicting the plight of urban Algerian women who have thrown off the shackles through the liberation of Algeria. However women find that ear of post-Colonial regime is no improvement, and Algerian society perpetuates the religious customs and imposes them even further to deny and subjugate the women. It is only the men who are liberated by the Revolution. The stories are political criticisms of Algeria, but they are highly stylized and lyrical. Their value is in the quality of the prose, not the message they deliver. However, within the excellent writing, a powerful message is delivered. It is about the cloistering of women in society, and they way women cope with the reticence that they naturally feel for a liberation which has forgotten them and passed them by completely. There is a quantifiable and demonstrated link between the language of the women and oppression, and it arises in direct reaction to oppression as perhaps the central theme of the book."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Djebar, Assia. Women of Algiers in Their ApartmentsUniversity of Virginia Press 1999 Williamsburg.

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