Representations of Women and Sexuality in Francophone North African Literature

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This study will examine the ways in which Francophone literature from Morocco and Algeriaappears dissident to the rise of Islamism, whilst often negating the many lived realities of women andtheir experiences with Islam. In doing so, this project will probe the understudied ways in whichcontemporary authors either challenge Western notions of power and rights by offering alternat iverepresentations of subaltern voices, or unintentionally reinforce colonial tropes and limit theopportunity for a positive reassessment of Islam. To do so, this project will compare the recent works(2005 - 2018) of Moroccan authors Leïla Slimani and Abdellah Taïa with Algerian writers MouradDjebel and Kamel Daoud, as they occupy the same generation of post-Independence Maghrebi writersusing French to engage heavily in these themes (Arabic and Berber are the official languages in Algeriaand Morocco but French is widely used in creating writing and wider intellectual debate). The projectwill analyse their novels, essays and journalism to explore how the form of the text contributes to asubtle change in our understanding of representations.