From Literary Particularism to Human Universality
The Socio-Identity Dynamics in the Works of Assia Djebar and Calixthe Beyala
Résumé
Abstract — The reality of the world and of human existence is constituted solely by human experience. Reality is formed through agreement among human instances apprehended as “experiential reality”. These instances are affiliations of which human experience is merely an actualization of experiential realities. African literature in French invites us to explore writers whose intention is to introduce the reader to philosophies that transcend the universal feminine voice. Assia Djebar and Calixthe Beyala emphasize that, from the perspective of the African woman, situational irony appears to be inescapably the essence of a life lived in psychological captivity, and that this “capricious” condition is the result of her predetermined destiny. In existentialist philosophy and literature, woman, like all human beings, is capable of shaping the essence of her life through her own choices, regarding herself as a unique being, mistress of her actions, her destiny, and the values she freely embraces. Like Calixthe Beyala, Assia Djebar addresses the question of women’s freedom beyond the geocultural sphere, proposing frameworks that horizontally transcend a universalism rooted in particularism. It is precisely the sum of what may appear as “separatism” that constitutes the universal in women. Both authors invite readers to discover divergent geographical spaces that redefine this universalism while putting forward an existential model. Several questions arise regarding Djebar and Beyala’s conception of the universal : is it envisioned as a simple circle, or rather as straight lines capable of overlapping and intersecting
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