Fantasia : An Algerian Cavalcade

by Djebar, Assia

• ISBN13: 9780435086213
• ISBN10: 0435086219
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-03-15
• Publisher: HEINEMAN

Summary

In this stunning novel, Assia Djebar intertwines the history of her native Algeria with episodes from the life of a young girl.

Author Biography

ASSIA DJEBAR is considered as a major woman writer in Maghreb. By the time she was thirty, she had written four novels in French. In 1962, she abandoned fiction writing in French and devoted herself the teaching history at the University of Algiers. During the ensuing twelve years, she tried to tackle the problem of the transition from writing in French to writing in Arabic. She found a partial solution to this problem in the cinema with her film La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua, which was awarded the Critics Prize at the Venice Biennal 1979. In 1980 Assia published a volume of short stories dealing with the lives of contemporary urban Algerian women: Femmes dAlger dans leur appartemen. Assia Djebars work has been known to the English reader primarily through the translation of her first novel La Soif (1957) under the title of The Mischief. Lamour, la fantasia, translated as Fantasia: an Algerian Cavalcade was published in 1985.

Table of Contents

Glossary	vii
Chronology	xi
Introduction	xv
PART ONE THE CAPTURE OF THE CITY or Love-letters	1	(46)
A Little Arab Girl's First Day at School	3	(3)
I	6	(3)
Three Clositered Girls	9	(5)
II	14	(6)
The French Policeman's Daughter	20	(8)
III	28	(7)
My Father Writes to My Mother	35	(4)
IV	39	(7)
Deletion	46	(1)
PART TWO THE CRIES OF THE FANTASIA	47	(64)
Captain Bosquet Leaves Oran to Take Part in a Razzia	49	(9)
I	58	(6)
Women, Children, Oxen Dying in Caves	64	(16)
II	80	(3)
The Naked Bride of Mazuna	83	(18)
III	101	(8)
Sistrum	109	(2)
PART THREE VOICES FROM THE PAST	111
First Movement: The Two Strangers	113
Voice	117
Clamour	122
Aphasia of Love	125
Voice	130
Embraces	141
Second Movement: The Trance	143
Voice	146
Murmurs	151
Plunder	153
Voice	158
Embraces	164
Third Movement: The Ballad of Abraham	169
Voice	173
Whisphers	176
The Quranic School	179
A Widow's Voice	186
Embraces	189
Fourth Movement: The Cry in the Dream	193
A Widow's Voice	198
Dialogues	201
The Onlookers	203
A Widow's Voice	206
Embraces	208
Fifth Movement: The Tunic of Nessus	213
Soliloquy	218
Tzarl-rit: (Finale)	221
Pauline...	222
The Fantasia	224
Air on a Nay	226