Mehdid, Malika (1993) Tradition and subversion : gender and post-colonial feminism : the case of the Arab region (with particular reference to Algeria). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This study critically examines the position of women in post-colonial societies
across the Arab region and the structuring of female experience and gender by patriarchy,
class, literacy, religion and historical conditions such as colonization, neo-imperialism and
the rise of capitalism. The male writing of the female body and the perception of the latter
as a field of power within the Arabo-Muslim culture constitutes the framework of the
thesis. This critical approach also informs the growing feminist scholarship on the subject
of the so-called Arab woman in the area under study. The notion of the feminine delivered
by male dogmatic discourses, whether old or new, traditional or modern, orthodox or
profane, is briefly presented in the first part of the dissertation while the deconstruction of
such a referential setting by feminist academic work is undertaken in Part two as an attempt
to integrate notions of womanhood, sexuality, identity, culture, religious belief, statehood,
and material factors into a discursive order. Sexual difference becomes problematized
within the critical assessment of the fictional voices developed by women, their exploration
of concepts of sexual behaviour and their analysis of how gender ideology permeates the
modernist endeavours of the post-colonial state in its efforts at development.
A significant predicament is highlighted by the thesis: the cultural discourse on
women, enduringly linked to their functions within the private realm, copulation and
reproduction, as indicated by both the fictional and the scholarly literature, clashes with the
developmentalist endeavours which require active roles within the public sphere. The
conflict and indeterminacies generated by such a discrepancy are projected as an essential
framework for understanding the construction of women as the 'subordinate sex' at
various levels. It is also read as a fundamental dilemma that post-colonial societies across
the Mediterranean have yet to address in order to resolve, at least partly, their present
socio-economic crisis. The notion of woman is further essentialized within concepts of
difference drawn by other dominant discourses examined in Part three. Perspectives of
neo-colonialism emanating from the post-industrial First World become a framework in
which to insert the work of feminist academics from North Africa and the Middle East as
well as definitions of women, whether in the world at large or in more academic terms.
The furthest concern of the debate on the 'women question' is to underline
however the significance of feminism to operate as a major socio-political force within the
post-colonial world. The findings of this research already indicate that the various
movements for female emancipation taking place in the region open up new possibilities of
struggle for economic growth, equality and secular democracy.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DS Asia P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Arab countries -- History -- 20th century, Women -- Arab countries, Male domination (Social structure) -- Arab countries, Feminism -- Arab countries, Women in literature
Official Date:	1993
Dates:	Date Event 1993 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Extent:	vii, 442 leaves
Language:	eng

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