Al Cheit

As the cliche goes, you write what you know. Coming into this the phrase was worn-out, something said by readers who hadn't studied Roland Barthes and still couldn't tell the difference between the life of the author and that of the protagonist. But since then, I've changed my mind: writing what you know is a more efficient way of saying that in order to be a good writer, you must understand whatyou're writing about. This concept may seem rudimentary, but when I started writing Al Cheit, the truth is, I didn't understand my subject.

The Nightmare of Actual Identity": Franco-Algerian Literature after Liberation"

In this thesis I examine the issues of postcolonial Algerian identity expressed in literature, and the difficulty of defining an Algerian identity independent of French influence. I analyze and contextualize three novels (Le Polygone etoile by Kateb Yacine,L'Amour, la fantasia by Assia Djebar, and Le Village de l'allemand ou le journal des freres Schiller) representative of their respective periods. I explore the evolution of expressions of identity through post-liberation Algeria. The years immediately following decolonization are marked by the effort to return to aprecolonial blank slate, an effort that Yacine cautions against. The 1980s and 1990s are most concerned with re-inserting Algeria into the Western historical discourse, and the most recent literature moves beyond decolonization to discuss the current Islamistchallenge and immigration. Among the pertinent issues are language, oral vs. written traditions, the often blatant absence of Algerians and women from the accounts in the French colonial archives, and, of course, the Self/Other binary. I have found that theserepresentative authors and texts use asynchronic time, fragmented narrative, re-written history, and expressions of violence in an attempt to cope with the colonial period and decolonization. I show that these authors provide a commentary on those who have triedto erase their French side, but with little success. Ultimately, though in different ways, each author writes that Algerians much accept their French past and move beyond it,rather than fighting their collective history.

Casualty, Causality and Chivalry: the Myth of Chivalry and Racial Violence in Southern Literature

This honors thesis project uses history and literature to analyze the role of the myth of chivalry in mystifying racial violence and oppression in the American South. The central claim is that the myth of chivalry¿ and particularly the exaltation of the white woman¿ is a myth system used to justify racial violence, oppress white womanhood, and allow white patriarchy to maintain political, social and economic dominance. This project traces the role of literature, especially Sir Walter Scott¿s historical romance, in developing the foundational myths of a southern society based in violence, racial hierarchy and gender inequality. It then follows the role of white womanhood in this myth¿ the restrictions on miscegenation, the exaltation of pure white femininity, and the violent actions performed in the name of southern women. With this historical baseline established, this study then explores three works of historical fiction that attempt to subvert this mythology by critiquing and demystifying the myth of chivalry, while also offering counter-narratives to popularized history. These works are Charles Chesnutt¿s 1901 novel The Marrow of Tradition¬, which analyzes the 1898 Wilmington N.C. race riot, Gwendolyn Brooks¿ 1960 poem ¿A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon¿ and Lewis Nordan¿s 1993 novel Wolf Whistle, two works about Emmett Till¿s tragic murder in 1955. This study, then, illuminates the intersection of literature and mythology, revealing how literature is useful for both creating and subverting myth¿and revealing how authors undertake this task.

Expanding Women's Worlds?: Development, Gender, and Environment in Rural Morocco

This honors thesis is an anthropological exploration of women's cooperatives in two regions of rural Morocco. Specifically, I am interested in how contemporary development projects such as the cooperative are understood by the peoples of these regions. By conducting first-hand ethnographic research among women's cooperatives in two drastically different environments of rural Morocco, I gain further insight into the roles that culture and geography play in determining the 'success' of cooperatives inlocal communities. In using the term 'success,' I will compare notions of success as used by both Western development organizations as well as local people in Morocco. I examine and analyze the very delicate and complex interaction that occurs between largely Western development agencies and local cultures particularly through the lens of gender. I will also convey the importance of an exchange of cultural practices through development projects rather than the imposition of one cultural system on another. In writing this thesis, I hope to contribute to the growing field of the anthropologyof development, a subset of cultural anthropology that examines international development practices and the economic, social, and political factors that have an impact on the local culture. I examine cooperatives from the perspectives of both the people whoparticipate in them through personal interviews as well as development institutions through an ongoing body of published literature. Focusing on gender implications that such development initiatives have on the rural cultures of Morocco, I argue that gender identities are crucial aspects of local cultures that must be addressed within development practices. On a broader scale, I argue that a deeper knowledge of local cultures is essential if development agencies are to be 'successful' in non-Western cultures.