De sur a norte, de norte a surOrán y Montpellier en la obra de Malika Mokeddem

Abstract

Malika Mokeddem's stories, born from the urgency of a struggle against adverse historical circumstances, give the space a greater relevance than that of a mere geographical decoration: they turn it into a microcosm that exerts a remarkable influence on the female characters in their search for the own identity. In particular, this analysis focuses on two metropolitan cores, Oran and Montpellier, for the transcendency that these charge both in the personal life of the authoress and in her literary creation. This is intended to demonstrate to what point the mentioned cities constitute the reflection of a fragmented personality that acts as echo of its inhabitants: the studding of streets and passages exposes the social and ideological challenges, especially of those women who claim for their role in the community. Spatial segregation reflects the taboos of long ago that are still in force and whose influence explains the existence of borders that, although invisible, are not less present. Therefore, the metropolis described by Mokeddem ceases to be an objective reference of reality to turn into an amalgam of the successive sensations experienced by its fiction characters