Abstract
Using Northrop Frye's definition of the quest novel and Joseph Campbell's writings, Susannah Rodríguez Drissi explores in her paper, "The Quest for Body and Voice in Assia Djebar's So Vast the Prison," the motif of the journey as Djebar adapts it to her female characters. Rodríguez Drissi proposes that in previous studies concerning the hero -- such as in James Frazer's The Golden Bough or in Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces -- women are relegated to a secondary role. Recently, however, it has become evident that the study of the woman as "heroine" is necessary to a better understanding of not only of women's literature but of literature as a whole. Drawing on the example of Assia Djebar's work who dedicates her entire literary work to the reinstitution of the female voice in Algeria and whose narrators are always women, Rodríguez Drissi argues for the relevance of the study of the heroine in the study of culture and literature.
Recommended Citation
Rodríguez Drissi, Susannah.
"The Quest for Body and Voice in Assia Djebar's So Vast the Prison."
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
7.3
(2005):
<https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.1271>
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