Beyond the literary veil –Women writing Africa: The northern region(2009)

Abstract

Whenever African literature is discussed there is an articulated incorrect assumption that this relates to all the regions of Africa, except North Africa. A related further assumption is that only men in North Africa write. Female writers from the North barely receive critical attention, although they have been writing creative works. The aim of this article is to dispel the notion of literary drought when describing North Africa. Using the text, Women writing Africa: The northern region, the article demonstrates the different sensibilities that female authors in North Africa have created and manifest, when writing against patriarchy as well as against ideological philistinism within their communities. It is argued that female authors from North Africa African-Arab women are versatile in their imaginations as they engage with social reality from the perspective of creative art as well as political discourse. The article concludes that this assertion removes the literary veil so that North African female authors can begin to be appreciated artistically, more than has been the situation up to now.

“Thrusting the Private into the Public Sphere”: North African Women's Writing Identities in the Epistolary Form

“…In their edited book, Fatima Sadiqi et al manifest the tremendous amount of pressure brought to bear on women as presented through the narratives of short stories, songs and the epistolary forms. Khatija Bibi Khan (2012) agrees in her insightful essay on women writing in North Africa that the question of changing identities is not a straightforward narrative. The critic emphasises the ambiguities in some of the narratives by women and suggests that these are reflective of the power of traditions on women's imaginations.…”