Sephardic Women's Voices: Out of North Africa

by Nina B Lichtenstein

Overview

Sephardic women's writings present invaluable information about the marginalization and silencing of the Jewish experience in France and North Africa. These stories offer testaments of a generally excluded human experience that belongs in the diverse and hybrid collection of post-colonial stories of displaced peoples. Once their narratives are located and appreciated for their literary and historical value, it becomes clear that they need to be incorporated into a larger movement within the Jewish historical and cultural trajectory. These stories by seven different women afford an opportunity to (re-)discover the voices and experiences of the North African Jews.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781935604884
Publisher:	Gaon Web
Publication date:	01/02/2017
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.61(d)

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 9
Introduction 11

Part I: Historical Context
The Jews of the Maghreb: Belonging and Marginalization
Chapter 1. The Narrative of Loss 23
i. Recapturing Sephardic History in the Maghreb 26
ii. Jewish Women in the Historical Context 39
Chapter 2. The Jews in Colonial Maghreb: Between a Rock and a Hard Place 45
i. Cultural and Social Change 47
ii. The Loss of Language and Amnesia 60
iii. A New Schism 72

Part II: Literary Considerations
Chapter 3. History and Writing 79
i. Vanishing Bodies and Voices; Repressed Identities 79
ii. Aliyah or Yeridah? The Israel Experience 83
iii. Arriving in the Land of Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité 88
iv. Eclipsed Narratives 90
v. What Makes Literature Jewish? 97
Chapter 4. The Sephardic Woman and Post-colonial Discourse 101
i. Theoretical and Literary Reflections 101
ii. Diasporic Voices 109
iii. Language Matters and Sephardic Literature 115
iv. Modes of Narrating Personal Experience 122
v. On Loss and Memory 129
vi. The Role of Jewish Women Voices 132
vii. A Unique Point of View: Sephardic Women in France 136
viii. Where Do They Fit In? Issues of Classification 140



Part III: Voices
Chapter 5. Mothers, Fathers and Rabbis: Sephardic Traces in Writing
Memory and Identity 147
i. Woman as Mother, Woman as Daughter: Annie Cohen, Nina Moati and Gisèle Halimi 150
ii. A Mother to Contend With in Gisèle Halimi's Fritna 154
iii. Lyrical Memories of a Sephardic Mother in Annie Cohen's
Bésame Mucho 164
iii. Sephardic Transmission in Birth and Death in Nine Moati's
Mon Enfant, Ma Mère 175
Chapter 6. Phantom Rabbis and Marabouts: Catalysts of Memory and
Nostalgia in the Texts of Annie Cohen and Annie Fitoussie 185
i. The Wisdom of the Fool in Annie Fitoussi's
La mémoire folle de Mouchi Rabbinou 187
ii. Faucets Unplugged in Annie Cohen's Le Marabout de Blida 199
Chapter 7. Rebels with a Cause: Fathers and Daughters in Narratives by Paule Darmon and Chochana Boukhobza 211
i. Cultural Clashes In and Out of the Family in Paule Darmon's Baisse les Yeux, Sarah 212
ii. Beyond Personal Confession:
Chochana Boukhobza and Un Eté à Jérusalem 228

Conclusion 239
Bibliography 247
Films and Websites 260
About the Author 261
Index 263

Editorial Reviews

"This is a groundbreaking work which brings to the attention of the English-reading public the important creative work of Jewish women authors of North African origin in France since decolonization. Nina Lichtenstein masterfully provides valuable historical background and cultural contextualization together with insightful literary analysis. Her engaging and en lyric style is at once both intimately conversational and academically intellectual." - Norman A. Stillman, Schusterman-Josey Professor of Judaic History Emeritus, University of Oklahoma. Author of The Jews of Arab Lands and Jews in Arab Lands in Modern Times.

From the Publisher