Hardback

eBook

Add to GoodReads

Isabelle Eberhardt and North Africa

Nomadism as a Carnivalesque Mirage

Lynda Chouiten

As a woman who traversed the North African Orient in male costume, who spoke Arabic as well as French, and who professed Islam while transgressing many of its instructions, Isabelle Eberhardt seems to fit within Mikhail Bakhtin’s definition of the carnivalesque as the impulse to blend that which is usually kept separate by artificial boundaries and hierarchies. Nevertheless, this study demonstrates that her evolution in the Maghreb is carnivalesque only in appearance.

Despite her transvestism, the writer left unquestioned the traditional definitions of masculinity and femininity; it is her subscription to the patriarchal equation of maleness with power and womanhood with weakness which makes her borrow a masculine identity. In a similar way, her appropriation of several elements of Oriental culture does not prevent her from reproducing age-old Orientalist stereotypes. As portrayed in her texts, the natives are either aestheticized as picturesque figures from a bygone age or denigrated as uncivilized, dark-minded creatures. And because Orientalism, as Edward Said has famously argued, is but a textual manifestation of colonialism, Eberhardt’s Orientalist texts make her the accomplice of the colonialist project, a project which she also served by acting as a mediator between General Lyautey and native tribes. In discussing Eberhardt’s involvement in the colonial mission and her perpetuation of the patriarchal and Orientalist traditions, this study questions the image of rebel-figure that is usually assigned to her. Instead, it shows the writer’s literary and political gestures to be embedded in a marked quest for empowerment through the double (literary and political) conquest of the Orient.

Lexington Books

Pages: 246 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7391-8592-6 • Hardback • November 2014 • $121.00 • (£93.00)

978-0-7391-8593-3 • eBook • November 2014 • $114.50 • (£88.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / African, Literary Criticism / General, Social Science / Ethnic Studies / General, Social Science / World / Africa

Isabelle Eberhardt and North Africa

Nomadism as a Carnivalesque Mirage

Hardback

eBook

Summary

As a woman who traversed the North African Orient in male costume, who spoke Arabic as well as French, and who professed Islam while transgressing many of its instructions, Isabelle Eberhardt seems to fit within Mikhail Bakhtin’s definition of the carnivalesque as the impulse to blend that which is usually kept separate by artificial boundaries and hierarchies. Nevertheless, this study demonstrates that her evolution in the Maghreb is carnivalesque only in appearance.

Despite her transvestism, the writer left unquestioned the traditional definitions of masculinity and femininity; it is her subscription to the patriarchal equation of maleness with power and womanhood with weakness which makes her borrow a masculine identity. In a similar way, her appropriation of several elements of Oriental culture does not prevent her from reproducing age-old Orientalist stereotypes. As portrayed in her texts, the natives are either aestheticized as picturesque figures from a bygone age or denigrated as uncivilized, dark-minded creatures. And because Orientalism, as Edward Said has famously argued, is but a textual manifestation of colonialism, Eberhardt’s Orientalist texts make her the accomplice of the colonialist project, a project which she also served by acting as a mediator between General Lyautey and native tribes. In discussing Eberhardt’s involvement in the colonial mission and her perpetuation of the patriarchal and Orientalist traditions, this study questions the image of rebel-figure that is usually assigned to her. Instead, it shows the writer’s literary and political gestures to be embedded in a marked quest for empowerment through the double (literary and political) conquest of the Orient.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 246 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7391-8592-6 • Hardback • November 2014 • $121.00 • (£93.00)

978-0-7391-8593-3 • eBook • November 2014 • $114.50 • (£88.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / African, Literary Criticism / General, Social Science / Ethnic Studies / General, Social Science / World / Africa

Author

Lynda Chouiten teaches literature at the University of Boumerdès.

Table of Contents

Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter 1: Possessing the Land, Dividing the People
Chapter 2: Islam: The Not-So-Straight Way to Power
Chapter 3: Desiring Power: The Transvestite Westerner and the Eroticised Native
Chapter 4: Journeys: Travel, Writing, and the Changing Self
Conclusion: Eberhardt’s Life as a Novel-like Epic
Appendix 1: Glossary
Appendix 2: A Chronology of Eberhardt’s Life
Bibliography
About the Author

Reviews

In this carefully analysed, well-researched study, Lynda Chouiten argues that Isabelle Eberhardt was not the subversive figure she is often made out to be.
— Modern Language Review

Isabelle Eberhardt and North Africa

Nomadism as a Carnivalesque Mirage

Lynda Chouiten

Isabelle Eberhardt and North Africa

Nomadism as a Carnivalesque Mirage

ALSO AVAILABLE