So Vast the Prison

by DJEBAR, ASSIAWING, BETSY

• ISBN13: 9781583220672
• ISBN10: 1583220674
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2001-05-01
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press

Summary

So Vast the Prison is the most ambitious work to date by the woman many consider to be North Africa's most important literary voice. The tragedies of Algerian history are its subject, & particularly the condition of women in Islam. Djebar's fiction, like that of Nadine Gordimer & Edna O'Brien, wrestles with issues of oppression & the subtle ways language & history enforce it. Woven into one woman's personal story is the ancient history of her land, including the loss of its early languages, the massive destruction suffered in wars of conquest, & the quirks of chance that enabled traces to remain.

Author Biography

Betsy Wing is the author of Look Out for Hydrophobia, short stories and a novella and has published in The Southern Review and other journals. She lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Table of Contents

The Silence of Writing	11	(8)
What is Erased in the Heart
The Siesta	19	(6)
The Face	25	(12)
Space, Darkness	37	(11)
The Dance	48	(18)
The Absence	66	(21)
Before, After	87	(24)
The Goodbye	111	(12)
Erased in Stone
The Slave in Tunis	123	(8)
The Renegade Count	131	(4)
The Archeologist Lord	135	(7)
Destruction	142	(4)
The Secret	146	(7)
The Stele and the Flames	153	(6)
The Deported Writer	159	(12)
Abalessa	164	(7)
A Silent Desire
``Fugitive Without Knowing It''	171	(7)
Arable Woman I	178	(25)
First Movement: Of the Mother as Traveler	181	(22)
Arable Woman II	203	(21)
Second Movement: Of the Grandmother as a Young Bride	207	(17)
Arable Woman III	224	(28)
Third Movement: Of the Mother as Little Girl	230	(22)
Arable Woman IV	252	(26)
Fourth Movement: Of the Narrator in the French Night	258	(20)
Arable Woman V	278	(25)
Fifth Movement: Of the Narrator as an Adolescent	284	(19)
Arable Woman VI	303	(27)
Sixth Movement: Of Desire and its Desert	311	(19)
Arable Woman VII	330	(23)
Seventh Movement: Shadows of Separation	334	(19)
The Blood of Writing
Yasmina	353	(3)
The Blood of Writing---Final	356	(4)
Glossary	360