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Abstract
This paper argues that Malika Mokeddem champions secular modernity through Kenza, the female protagonist in Of Dreams and Assassins. It examines the processes and practices that shape her as a secular modern woman who castigates exclusivist identities that intolerant religious and state patriarchies seek to impose on Algerians in two different contexts of historical discontinuities. These include the adoption of an intense romantic lifestyle attuned to the modern principle of individual freedom, as well as excessive acts of indulgence mirroring a global culture of consumption. Mokeddem also constructs Kenza’s modernity through migration, art and readings of secular literature. Kenza’s body and intellect manifest her quest for individualism and universalism. However, this paper acknowledges the compatibility of modern principles with Islam or with Algeria. It highlights personal choice, which Islam’s rejection of compulsion emphasizes, as a pathway to secular modernity for women seeking a cosmopolitan self away from restricted identities.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity (1990 4), Homi Bhabha shows how discontinuities reshape cultures in ways that reflect their hybridity, and this applies to Algeria (“Cultural Diversity and Cultural Differences,” The Post-colonial Studies Reader, ed. B. Ashcroft, G. Griffiths, H. Tiffin (1995 208–209).
2 Giddens (1990 4).
3 See Terrance G. Carroll’s analysis of modernity in relation to secularization and religion in “Secularization and States of Modernity,” World Politics 36.3 (April 1984), 362–63.
4 Alain Touraine, Can We Live Together? (2000 23).
5 Touraine, (21).
6 Mohammed Arkoun, “Aux origines des cultures maghrébines,” (1991 133).
7 Arkoun (133).
8 See Christiane Chaulet-Achour et Lalia Kerfa, “Portrait. Malika Mokeddem,” (2000 31).
9 Abdullahi Ahmed An-Nàim (2008 2) contends that “Sharìa principles by their nature and function defy any possibility of enforcement by the state, claiming to enforce Sharìa principles as state law is a logical contradiction that cannot be rectified through repeated efforts under any conditions.” Noting that specialists of Islamic law interpret it today to “meet the earthly needs of the believer in his day-to-day life” without challenging its hold on “religious duties, family law (marriage, divorce, maintenance),” Mernissi echoes An-Na‘im by arguing that the shari’a “transcends both humanity and temporality” in its general meaning as “the whole duty of man,” (2011 29–30).
10 In A Dying Colonialism, Fanon writes: “[i]n Algeria, the eldest brother is the father’s designated successor. The other members of the family very quickly adopt a respectful and deferential attitude toward him” (110). Kenza rejects this expectation for good reasons.
11 About “disidentification” as a promoter of democracy or the expression of dissident bodies, Butler (2011 4) writes: “[I]t may be that the persistence of disidentification is equally crucial to the rearticulation of democratic contestation. Indeed, it may be precisely through practices which underscore disidentification with those regulatory norms by which sexual difference is materialized that both feminist and queer politics are mobilized.” Kenza’s feminism mirrors her practice of “disidentification”
12 Fanon highlights the heroic contribution of Algerian women to the Revolution and the ways in which they modernized marriage and divorce in A Dying Colonialism (1965 111–16).
13 Mokeddem reiterates her critic of this alleged institutional lie in her interview with Helm (44).
14 Michela Marzano stresses this Kristevian concept in her introduction to Dictionnaire du corps (Paris: PUF, 2007 1). See also Julia Kristeva, The Powers of Horror (1982) for the definition of “abjection”.
15 For a study the Algerian woman, clothing and the modern Algerian Revolution, see Fanon, A Dying Colonialism (59–62). Kenza’s dress style contributes to her naming as “American,” for instance.
16 Malek Chebel, Anthologie du vin et de l’ivresse en Islam, (2008 10–14).
17 Chebel thus describes it: “Au plan mystique, le vin est […] une effervescence des sens, une sorte de parfum de l’âme lorsqu’elle se trouve située au côté du Créateur. L’ivresse est une proclamation de l’amour divin,” (17) [At the mystical level, wine is […] an effervescence of the senses, a king of perfume for the soul when it is associated with the Creator. Drunkenness is a proclamation of divine love].
18 Chebel (19).
19 About wine in the Arab world, Chebel (11) writes: “le vin n’a jamais vraiment manqué en terre d’islam ni avant ni après l’avènement de l’islam […]. Quant à ses adeptes, ils ont eu tout le loisir de pouvoir se le procurer en tout temps et en tout lieu sans se ruiner. Certains poètes ont marqué leur siècle : al-A’acha (seconde moitié du VIe siècle), pour la période qui a précédé l’islam ; al-Akhtal (v. 640-v. 710) pour le Ier siècle, au temps des Omeyyades ; Abu Nûwas (782-vers 813) au temps des Abbassides » [there was never a lack of wine in the land of islam before and after its the advent […]. As for its adepts, they were quite able to find it at all times and everywhere without ruining themselves. Certain poets left a mark on the century in which they lived; al-A’acha (second half of the 6th century), for the period preceding islam; al-Akhlal (v. 640-v. 710) for the 1st century, at the times of the Omeyyades; Abu Nûwas (782-vers 813) at the time of the Abbassid.]
20 It is worth noting the nexus between the bourgeois and modern aspirations, which Kenza and her friends embody. According to Touraine, “The word ‘bourgeois’ has come to have many negative connotations, but this bourgeois society [industrial society] was also the society of the revolutions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This was the society that finally recognized the importance of feelings in personal, family and public life. It was in this bourgeois, scientific, national and, in a word, secular society that we once lived and it was to this model of society that we turned when we fought social injustices, arbitrary power, aggressive nationalism and a suffocating colonialism” (23). Chebel (12) associates wine consumption with the well-to-do and the educated in the Arab world.
21 The scarcity of water and its replacement with wine evoke a historic situation in Arabia: “En Arabie, toutes les boissons ont coexisté sans trop de heurts jusqu’au VIIe siècle apr. J.-C. La préférence allait évidemment vers l’eau qui était à la fois une denrée rare et précieuse, mais le vin égayait les soirées bédouines, notamment celles de l’aristocratie mecquoise et médinoise » (Chebel 23) [In Arabia, all beverages coexisted without any real issues until the 7th century AD. Obviously, people preferred water, which was rare and precious, but wine made Bedouin evenings enjoyable, especially those of the aristocracy in Mecca and Medina.]
22 See Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity (24).
23 For a brief study of the history of the tattoo in the West, see David Le Breton (719). It is noteworthy that Mokeddem’s reference to the tattooed woman anticipates Kenza’s trip to Canada, a neighbor of the USA where the rebirth tattoo is associated with the Civil Rights, the gay, feminist and the hippie movements of the 1960s.
24 Mokeddem refers to these children as “des petits censeurs” (Helm 44) [little detractors].
25 Muslim scholars engaged with secularism. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im (1), for one, opens his first chapter with the following sentence: “In order to be a Muslim by conviction and free choice, which is the only way one can be a Muslim, I need a secular state. By secular state, I mean one that is neutral regarding religious doctrine, one that does not claim or pretend to enforce Shari'a—the religious law of Islam—simply because compliance with Shari'a cannot be coerced by fear of state institutions or faked to appease their officials”.
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Mouhamédoul Amine Niang
Mouhamédoul Amine Niang is associate professor of French and Francophone Studies at Colby College. His research focuses on identity, gender, space and the body in Francophone African cinema and literature. He is the author of the monograph, La représentation de l’espace dans les littératures africaine et créoliste: de la polarité à sa transcendance (L’Harmattan, 2017). He has also published his work in academic journals and collective volumes.