Ferdiyya and para-community in Maghrebi literature and cinema

This dissertation examines the concept of individuation in Maghrebi literature and cinema. Maghrebi scholars often refer to ferdiyya, the Arabic word for individuation, to talk about the West but they rarely apply this concept of individuation to North Africa---the word itself was introduced in Arabic dictionaries at a late date.; I explore this concept ferdiyya through the analysis of two novels and three films, from the three countries of the Maghreb. The first part examines Driss Chraibi's Le Passe simple (1954) and Karim Nasseri's Chroniques d'un enfant du hammam (1998), both Moroccan. The second part turns to cinema with Halfaouine---1'enfant des terrasses (1990), a film made by the Tunisian Ferid Boughedir, and Le Harem de Madame Osmane (2000) and Viva Laldjerie (2004), two films by the Algerian Nadir Mokneche.; In this study, I question the gendered binary separation of space predominant in critical discourses on the Maghreb by both Maghrebi and non-Maghrebi scholars by suggesting that there exists a space of marginality distinct and separated from the feminine and the masculine spaces. I introduce two new concepts with which I identify the development of this third space: "peri-community" designates the space occupied by forced marginalized beings ("peri-communautaires"), while "para-community" signals the voluntarily marginalization of these beings ("para-communautaires"), who thus become marginalistes, or voluntarily marginalized entities.; Through this appropriation of the margin position, they become ferdis, which is to say that they free themselves from the obligations of the community that I call ijtima'. I distinguish ijtima' (which one could call social community) from Oumma (religious community) because I maintain that ijtima' is concerned with the social being of Maghrebis while the Oumma ensures their spiritual and religious welfare.; I show that ferdiyya triggered by the characters' contact with the West and aims at releasing them from the yoke of the community and from their obligations to the ijtima's rigid spatial dichotomy and rules of belonging.