Women of Algiers in their Apartment by Eugène Delacroix and the Shaping of the Contemporary Algerian Novelistic Text: Counter-Representation from a Postcolonial Feminist Perspective

Abstract

Women of Algiers in Their Apartment, by the French painter Eugene Delacroix, is one such art reference that has led to the composition of two books, namely Prisoner of the Sun by Algerian novelist Hamid Abdelkader and Line of Sand by Algerian novelist Hajer  Kouidri. Analyzing the concept of Orientalism in the postcolonial feminist framework, both of these books examine the stereotypical formation of the Algerian identity. They embark on a project of rectification that starts with giving back to history the long-denied voice. This self-narrative, based on other forms of representations, defiance, and cultural activities that it veils, speaks volumes about the narrator's point of view. It is here that the current study aims at looking into this issue.