The Politics of Form in Assia Djebar's L'Amour, la fantasia

This article calls attention to the categorical confinement of Algerian novelist, historian, and feminist Assia Djebar (1936-2015), and argues that the politicization of Djebar's text has contributed to the relative obscurity of her work. Following a call by Francoise Lionnet to reimagine the relationship between politics and aesthetics in critical response, I analyze modified repetition-rhyme, recall, echo, imitation, and mirror-as a formal device in L'Amour, la fantasia. In its third section, this paper, drawing from Rita Felski's discussion of the four types of activities in which academics engage, argues for the importance of formal comparison in postcolonial scholarship. In attending to the particulars of Djebar's text, so as to privilege connection, postcolonial scholars might increase her exposure and broaden the reach of postcolonial theory.