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

Abstract

This article engages North African Women’s writing their unique identities in the epistolary form as depicted in the anthology, Women Writing Africa: The Northern Region. The epistolary or letter form is a unique genre. On one hand, the form of a letter is personal, and lays claim to private experiences whose content is the confidential lives of those who write them. And yet, on the other hand, the contents of an epistolary form can be thrust into the public domain where the lives on which it narrates is read by many people for the interest it can generate when the form assumes the figure of a metaphoric allegory. In the anthology, there are six letters written by women, touching on themes of slavery, sisterhood, marginality and the quest for political freedom in a patriarchal-dominated North African community. It is curious to observe that North African women who represented their experiences in the form of the letters did so against the repression of this form from the predominance of realism, song and political treatise. This article argues that the editors of Women Writing Africa: The Northern Region can be accused of bias in their selection that privileges literary forms ordinarily associated with men’s preference for classical realism. Despite this literary imbalance, the epistolary form effects some form of resistance to ideological and literary enforcements. The epistolary form also attempts to manage contradictory identities revealed on the spectrum of differences in how women shape their identities. Thus, the epistolary form functions in an ambiguous way; it affirms as well as interrogates patriarchy and also critiques the writings on women by women who write for men or like men.

Opsomming

Hierdie artikel handel oor vroueskrywers in Noord-Afrika wat in briefvorm aan hulle unieke identiteite gestalte gee, soos gevind in die bloemlesing Women Writing Africa: The Northern Region. Die briefvorm is ’n unieke genre. Enersyds is die briefvorm persoonlik; dit maak aanspraak op private ervarings, en skrywers se verborge lewens is die inhoud van hierdie ervarings. Tog kan die inhoud van ’n briefvorm andersyds in die openbare domein ontbloot word. Dáár word die lewens waarvan vertel word deur baie mense gelees omdat belangstelling geprikkel word as die vorm die gedaante van 'n metaforiese allegorie aanneem. Die bloemlesing bestaan uit ses briewe wat deur vroue geskryf is en temas aanroer soos slawerny, susterskap, marginaliteit en die stryd om politieke vryheid in 'n patriargale samelewing in Noord-Afrika. Dit is interessant om waar te neem dat die vroue uit Noord-Afrika wat hulle ervarings in die vorm van briewe aanbied, dit doen teen die onderdrukking van die vorm vanuit die oorheersing van realisme, die lied en politieke verhandelings. Die artikel voer aan dat die samestellers van Women Writing Africa: The Northern Region beskuldig kan word van vooroordeel by hul seleksie, en dat hulle voorrang gee aan literêre vorme wat gewoonlik geassosieer word met ’n manlike voorkeur vir klassieke realisme. Ten spyte van hierdie literêre wanbalans bewerkstellig die briefvorm ’n vorm van weerstand teen ideologiese en literêre dwang. Teenstrydige identiteite word ontbloot op die spektrum van verskille in hoe vroue aan hulle identiteite vorm gee, en die briefvorm poog ook om dié teenstrydige identiteite te bestuur. Die briefvorm funksioneer dus dubbelsinnig: dit bevestig én bevraagteken patriargie, en lewer kommentaar op die skryfwerk van vroue deur vroue wat vir mans of soos mans skryf.