INTRODUCTION TO GENRE

THE ALMOND BY NEDJMA “A book of incredible audacity” Catherine Millet, Author of The sexual Life of Catherine M A STORY OF LOVE? This narrative is first of all a story of soul and flesh. Of a love that states its name, often crudely, and not burdened by any moral standards other than those of the heart…” , yes , The Almond is about love, but do not judge this book by its cover; Nedjma continues, “I raise these words as one raises a glass, to the health of Arab women, for whom recapturing the confiscated mention of he body is half the battle in the quest to healing their men.”, (Nedjma 1).  The author of The Almond is allegedly an Arabian woman in her forties Using the pseudonym of Nedjma, and has been described as having ,“heroically” written this socio-political/semibiographical account.  The young protagonist, is a Moroccan girl named Badra. Forced into marriage at seventeen, to a much older man, who rapes her on their wedding night.  The writer’s purpose is to draw attention to the prohibitions of law, religion, and family on female rights regarding freedom and sexual emancipation in certain sectors of the Arab world. “Your daughter is already a woman”, the farmer’s wife admonished Barda’s mother, “you cannot continue to let her go to the city and pursue those damned studies, which won’t do her any good, anyway. If you keep being so hard-headed, she’ll get so itchy that she will leave and start chasing after men.” (Nedjma 29-30). INTRODUCTION TO GENRE The word genre comes from the French and originally Latin, meaning 'kind' or 'class'. The term is widely used in rhetoric, to refer to a distinctive type of ‘text’. Conventional definitions of genres are based on the notion that they constitute a unanimity of content, such as theme, structure and style, which are shared by other texts (Chandler 2). “My Ambition is to give back to the women of my blood the power of speech confiscated by their fathers, brothers and husband.” (Nedjma 1).  The Almond is a feminist dialogue in which the female character uses her sexuality as a symbol of rebellion against a repressive patriarchal culture.  The labelling of autobiographical cannot be established beyond a reasonable doubt.  The author’s pseudonym ‘Nedjma’ which means star in Arabic, can be construed as a tenuous identification with the young Moroccan protagonist.  The Almond narrative, is a blend of Middle Eastern feminism, Eastern Islamic memoire and erotica. Three very contested issues juxtaposed against each another. Blurred Genres: The Reconfiguration of Social Thought “Genre blurring is more than just a matter of Harry Houdini or Richard Nixon turning up as characters in novels or of Midwestern murder sprees described as though a gothic romancer had imagined them. It is philosophical inquiries looking like literary criticism (think of Stanley Cavellon Beckett or Thoreau, Sartre on Flaubert), scientific discussions looking like belles lettres morceaux…” (Geertz 19-20). The Almond, blends feminist narrative, Islamic/Middle Eastern life writing, and erotica. The author uses a temporal timeline switching back and forth between developmental stages to present them as personal musings. For example, Badra’s rape on her wedding night is presented halfway through the book after she is seduced by an older man who introduces her to the pleasures of consensual sex, (Nedjma 95-115). The socio-political agenda is made apparent in the writer’s quote : “I had to talk about the body, it is the last taboo, one where all the political and religious prohibitions are concentrated. It is the last battle for democracy. I did not want to write politically but I did look for something radical. It is a cry of protest.”, (Riding 1). WHAT IS AN AUTHOR “Texts, books, and discourses really began to have authors (other than mythical. "sacralized" and "sacralizing" figures) to the extent that authors became subject to punishment, that is, to the extent that discourses could be transgressive. In our culture (and doubtless in many others), discourse was not originally a product, a thing, a kind of goods; it was essentially an act-an act placed in the bipolar field of the sacred and the profane, the licit and illicit, the religious and the blasphemous.”(Foucault 108) The Story of Zahra, by Hanan al-Shaykh, The Open Door, by Latifa al-Zayyat, The Smile by Nafila Dhahab, A Worthless Woman, by Hayat Bin al-Shaykh; These Middle Eastern women, write openly about the religious, the illicit, and the blasphemous. without recourse. This sheds doubt on Nedjma, who is a self-proclaimed crusader for feminine liberty, and rebellion, yet hides behind the safety of a pseudonym and a veil of anonymity. We have no voice. We have no visibility... And I am telling you, this is why women’s rights should be institutionalised, it should not be held hostage at the hand of political leaderships who can change in a second, right? Governments should be held responsible for treating men and women equally.” A public statement by yet another high profile Middle Eastern author, Amal Al Malki, in an interview by Al Jazira: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/2012/04/201242111373249723.html “THE DEATH OF AN AUTHOR” “The image of literature to be found in contemporary culture is tyrannically centred on the author, his person, his history, his tastes, his passions; criticism still consists, most of the time, in saying that Baudelaire’s work is the failure of the man Baudelaire…”, (Barthes 168) In this instance, language devoid of its author’s voice, is at the very least: “An acquiescence before the very totalitarian forces that provoke such a consideration in the first place.”(Burke 287).  Nedjma estimates that about 40 percent of "The Almond," her first book, is autobiographical (Riding 3).  The Almond is written in French because according to Nedjma, "In any event, if I'd written in Arabic, it would never have been published, "she said. "Nor will it.”. The Almond is banned in most of the conservative Arab world.  A spike in literature surrounding Middle Eastern issues is definitely noticeable in the plethora of Middle Eastern women's memoires both real ( Marina Nemat, Azar Nafzi) and fabricated (Norma Khoury, Tom MacMaster’s Blog about a Syrian Gay Woman), in such an environment, the establishment of Authorial Identity plays a great role in advancing validation for the authorial piece and therefore its message.  Nedjma has come under fire from established Middle Eastern authors like Laila Al Alami, a Moroccan American novelist, and essayist, born and raised in Rabat, Morocco, who said, “That Nedjma, who’s written a novel that is so unremarkable, could claim that she fears for her life, is not only ludicrous, it is an insult to the women who dare to speak about their condition, face unveiled, and live with the consequences.” To Read More : http://lailalalami.com/2005/nedjmas-the-almond DEATH OF THE ‘AUTHORESS’ “My Ambition is to give back to the women of my blood the power of speech confiscated by their fathers, brothers and husbands.”, (Nedjma 1). “The explanation of the work is always sought in the man or woman who produced it, as if it were always in the end, through the more or less transparent allegory of fiction, the voice of a single person, the author, ‘confiding’ in us.”, (Barthes 168) As a Middle Eastern woman, I would ask the following: Is the explanation for The Almond sought for in the woman who has produced this work? Is the anonymity of the ‘authoress’ modelling to the women of her blood the restoration of their power of speech? Can power and freedom of speech be asserted and practiced in exile? in absentia? In anonymity? When fathers, brothers and husbands remain unchallenged, unopposed, when no one is held responsible for the subjugation of feminie power, when many of our stories are denied the use of our mother tongue and its symbolisms, when in fear and desperation we choose the lesser of two evils, and resort to the language of our colonial masters, who for years, dominated not only us, but us and our lands and our husbands and our brothers and our fathers. Part of me applauds Nedjma, and part of me is left with many unanswered questions. If I could, this is what I would say to Nedjma and women suffering a similar plight: “The daughters of the East have for too long been anonymous, it is time to sweep aside the veil of secrecy and confiscated speech, and confront those whom under the guise of “protector” and “protected” do the most harm.” WORKS CITED Adams, Lorraine. "Harem Scarum." Washington Post: Breaking News, World, US, DC News & Analysis. The Washington Post Company, 7 July 2005. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. www.washingtonpost.com Barthes, Roland. "The Death of The Authour." Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader. Ed. David Lodge. London: Longman, 1988. 166-172.www.edocs.library.curtin.edu.au.. Web. 13 Dec. 2013. Chandler, Daniel. "Introduction to Genre Theory." Aberystwyth University - Home. N.p., 7 Apr. 2000. Web. 16 Dec. 2013. www.aber.ac.uk Burke, Sean. "The Ethics of Signature." Authorship: From Plato to the Postmodern : a Reader. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995. 285-291. www.edocs.library.curtin.edu.au Web. 13 Dec. 2013. Foucault, Michel, and Paul Rabinow. "What is an Author." The Foucault Reader. New York, new york: Pantheon Books, 1984. 101-120. http://edocs.library.curtin.edu.au Web. 13 Dec. 2013 Geertz, Clifford. "Blurred Genres: The Reconfiguration of Social Thought." Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology. New York: Basic Books, 1983. 19-35. www.cch.kcl.ac.uk Web. 13 Dec. 2013. Nedjma, and C J. Hunter. The Almond. New York: Grove Press, 2005. Print. Riding, Alan. "A Muslim Woman, a Story of Sex - New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. New York Times, 13 Dec. 2013.Web. 13 Dec. 2013. www.nytimes.com