Re-hybridizing Transnational Domesticity and Femininity: Women's Contemporary Filmmaking and Lifewriting in France, Algeria, and Tunisia (After the Empire: Francophone World and Postcolonial France)

293 Pages·2010·1.37 MB·English

by  Stacey Weber-Feve

Re-hybridizing
Transnational
Domesticity and
Femininity
After the Empire:
The Francophone World and
Postcolonial France
Series Editor
Valérie Orlando, University of Maryland
Advisory Board
Robert Bernasconi, Memphis University; Alec Hargreaves,
Florida State University; Chima Korieh, Rowan University;
Mildred Mortimer, University of Colorado, Boulder;
Obioma Nnaemeka, Indiana University; Kamal Salhi,
University of Leeds; Tracy D. Sharpley-Whiting, Vanderbilt
University; Nwachukwu Frank Ukadike, Tulane University
See www.lexingtonbooks.com/series for the series description and
a complete list of published titles.
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Re-hybridizing Transnational Domesticity and Femininity: Women’s
Contemporary Filmmaking and Lifewriting in France, Algeria, and Tunisia,
by Stacey Weber-Fève

Re-hybridizing
Transnational
Domesticity and
Femininity
Women’s Contemporary
Filmmaking and Lifewriting in
France, Algeria, and Tunisia
S W -F`
TACEY EBER EVE
LEXINGTON BOOKS
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Copyright © 2010 by Lexington Books
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission
from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
Excerpts from The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir, translation copyright © 1969 by
Collins Publishers, and G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Used by permission of Pantheon Books, a division of
Random House, Inc.
Annie Ernaux, excerpts from A Frozen Woman, translated by Linda Coverdale. Translation
copyright © 1995 by Seven Stories Press. Reprinted with the permission of Seven Stories Press,
www.sevenstories.com.
Excerpts in the first half of chapter 2 are reproduced from Annie Ernaux, La femme gelée, ©
Éditions Gallimard, 1981, all rights reserved.
Excerpts in the second half of chapter 2 are reproduced from Simone de Beauvoir,
La femme rompue, © Éditions Gallimard, 1967, all rights reserved.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Weber-Feve, Stacey, 1977–
Re-hybridizing transnational domesticity and femininity : women’s contemporary fi lmmaking and
lifewriting in France, Algeria, and Tunisia / Stacey Weber-Feve.
p. cm. — (After the empire: the francophone world and postcolonial France ; 12)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7391-3451-1 (alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7391-3453-5 (ebook)
1. French literature—Women authors—History and criticism. 2. French literature—French-
speaking countries—History and criticism. 3. Feminist fi lms—French-speaking countries—History
and criticism. 4. Women motion picture producers and directors—French-speaking countries.
5. Home in literature. 6. Home in motion pictures. 7. Femininity in literature. 8. Femininity in
motion pictures. 9. Gender identity in literature. 10. Gender identity in motion pictures. I. Title.
PQ149.W38 2010
840.9'3522—dc22 2009036732
(cid:2)
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/
NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
To Sébastien, whom I’d be utterly lost without.
For my mother and father, who gave my sister and me our allowances “just for
breathing.”
In memory of my grandmothers, Rose Migliorino and LaRue Weber, who in-
spired me to learn how to knit, cook, and bake.

Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Interrogating and Re-hybridizing the Personal xiii
1 Making Home with Assia Djebar: Destablizing the Center(s) 1
2 (Re)Displaying Femininity and Home with Annie Ernaux and
Simone de Beauvoir 41
3 Creating Domestic Landscapes and Soundscapes with Raja Amari
and Coline Serreau 103
4 (Re)Presenting Female Iconography at Home with Leïla Sebbar
and Yamina Benguigui 151
Conclusion 207
Bibliography 215
Index 233
About the Author 239
ix