Malek Haddad and the Western Woman: The Northern Female Figure through the Pen of a Southern Man

Abstract

In literary history, the female character has long been relegated to a peripheral position, subordinate to male figures and deprived of narrative autonomy. It is only with the advent of modern literature that she gradually acquires agency, emancipating herself from both social and fictional constraints. Algerian literature written in French, produced during the colonial period, initiates this evolution by assigning women a central role, often imbued with historical and symbolic significance. This study aims to examine the representation of the Western woman in the works of Malek Haddad (La Dernière Impression, Je t’offrirai une gazelle, L’élève et la leçon, and Le Quai aux Fleurs ne répond plus). Far from being reduced to sentimental or sensual figures, these female characters emerge as complex symbolic entities. Their analysis offers insight into the affective and identity dynamics at play in a literary discourse shaped by colonial tensions and the fractures of cultural in-betweenness.