Born 1944 in Fes (Morocco)
Background
Novelist
Poet
Has done a thesis on social psychiatry
Taught in a secondary school
Lives in Paris
Has written for Le Monde
A more detailed biography
is available at this external site
La Nuit sacree is the sequel to l'Enfant de sable although the narrative changes to that of Ahmed-Zahra. Zarah was named Ahmed-Zarah in l'Enfant de sable, and as such constitutes an androgynous being. Her gender was denied her by her father who upon her birth thought he saw "un garcon et pas une fille". This brings to the fore the theme of the subordinate value of female offspring in the Islamic culture as in the world Jelloun portrays one can only bequeath one's possessions to one's son. It also reflects the theme of the repression of the female voice as seen elsewhere in the texts studied. The veil plays an integral part in the deroulement of Ahmed-Zarah's transition to Zarah. After the death of her father she rids herself of the veil and seeks liberation of the soul as well as the body in a bid to establish a personal identity. She narrates the story in her twilight years, hence the theme of liberation through the desexualisation of muslim women with age is also considered. Once the woman is old the family honor is no longer threatened by sexual relations in a culture in which virginity is an essential possession of one seeking to enter marriage (where she will hence fulfill the child-rearing function that patriarchy has assigned to her). Zarah decides to "enfermer mon passe dans un coma profond, a le dissoudre dans une amnesie totale". Notice she does not wish to deny this enforced androdgynous past as denial goes hand in hand with shame. She cannot be ashamed of a past for which she was not responsible. There are countless themes but here are some of the main ones. The murder of her uncle constitutes an act ("engage") against patriarchy which helps to fulfill a personal need to purge herself of her past. She also gains vengeance as it was in a bid to prevent his possessions passing to his jealous brother that her father made her assume this androgynous guise. The veil interplays with the blindness of the Consul and Zarah's denial of her own senses in prison indeed the theme of "regard" is in constant play. Further themes are listed below but perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the text are the ambiguities. Would the sisters really have been able to commit such an atrocious act as the genital disfiguration constitutes. The call of Djebar in Les Femmes D'Alger for her sisters to see each other as allies as opposed to enemies is called to mind. On another ambiguous note the rape scene involves an atrocious act that one finds hard to believe Zarah would not have found traumatic even if it did establish her sexuality. The interplay of reality and dreams makes for some exciting interpretations.
Other Themes