Description
Book SynopsisAlgeria Cuts discusses the figure of woman under colonial rule in Algeria as well as within the postcolonial independent nation-state through an interdisciplinary framework that spans fine art, film, colonial and legal policy, manifestoes, prose fiction, and theoretical and philosophical texts concerning the relationship between France and Algeria.
Trade Review"Brilliantly argued and powerfully written,
Algeria Cuts also benefits from a generous thirty images, an enigmatic cover by Zineb Sedira, and fifty pages of meticulous footnotes. It is a beautiful book as well as an urgent one, and a massive contribution to the postcolonial field, as well as to the emerging area of Algerian cultural studies." -- Guy Austin *
Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies *
"
Algeria Cuts is a timely and challenging reflection on how women elude and confound direct representation in literature, the arts, politics, law, and justice under conditions deeply inflected by colonialism and its aftermath. Pursuing the implication of this representational disruption for an ethics and a practice of transnational feminism, Khanna meticulously resists disciplinary strictures and the predictable conclusions they yield. Her analyses of mock trials, film, painting, manifestos, prose fiction and installations illuminate the multifarious junctures where gender disturbs representation in Algerian texts and contexts. While the focus here is on Algeria, this important book's insights and novel interdisciplinary method reach well beyond its immediate context." -- Natalie Melas * Cornell University *
"In this multidisciplinary book, Khanna describes the ways in which women have been represented in Algerian history, from the onset of French colonialism in 1830 until today Khanna knows the history, relates it engagingly, and describes human events movingly." --
CHOICE"Khanna evokes an inspiring imagery and provides a solid theoretical discussion for the book's gender perspective." --
Journal of Peace ResearchTable of ContentsPART I. THEORIZING JUSTICE 1. Frames, Contexts, Community, Justice 31 2. The Experience of Evidence: Language, the Law, and the Mockery of Justice 68 PART II. MELANCHOLIC REMAINDERS 3. The Battle ofAlgiers and The Nouba of the Women: From Third to Fourth Cinema 103 4. Women ofAlgiers in Their Apartment- Trauma, Melancholia, and Nationalism 139 PART III. ALGERIA BEYOND ITSELF 5. Latent Ghosts and the Manifesto: Baya, Breton, and Reading for the Future 173 6. "Araby" (Dubliners) and A Sister to Scheherazade: Women's Time and the Time of the Nation 211z
