This paper will look at love, sex and gender within the backdrop of postmodernism, existentialism and orientalism in the novels The Women of Algiers in Their Apartment by Assia Djebar, Foam of the Daze by Boris Vian and The Lover by Marguerite Duras. In the novels love/ and sex are shown as something that a woman has no control over, something that destroys due to its intensity, and something that forever changes a person, respectively. While gender is seen as being something that disenfranchises women in a male dominant, unequal society and something that can destroy a man if a woman is given too much power. This is seen in Foam of the Daze when both Colin and Chick are each destroyed in some way by the women in their lives.
In The Women of Algiers in Their Apartment by Assia Djebar, the author looks at love, sex and gender through an existential lens. In the case of the women in the novel the ability of the women to exist as a free and independent agent who is in charge of their own choices in life are greatly hindered by the culture in which they live. In the book this is shown by Leila raging against the unfairness of a patriarchal society, and Sarah choosing not to reveal the truth about her scar. Moreover, it is seen as the women remain dignified in a society that gives them no respect. The novel itself was based on a painting of three women in an Algerian harem by Delacroix. In the painting Delacroix depicted the women is a way that was that was traditionally used to indicate orientalism. It was this painting that Djebar based her story off of. While Algeria is in North Africa, Orientalism is still seen here because the country follows the mandates of Islam which was founded in the Middle East and is part of Asia. In Islam men cast women into lesser roles in society. They also view women as being submissive objects that were to be viewed but not touched, with the exceptions of married women and prostitutes.
Unlike The Women of Algiers in Their Apartment in which the existentialism of the women is very limited when it comes to sex, gender and love, in Foam on the Daze the story uses existentialism in a humorous manner while having the character’s act according to their own desires. Set in Paris sometime in the future Colin whose wife Chloe is dying of a water lily on her lung and must be surrounded by flowers in order to shame the water lily into dying due to their beauty, Colin soon finds himself broke. Soon Chloe dies and the grief that surrounds Colin is so intense that his pet mouse commits suicide to escape it. While this is going on his friend Chick becomes obsessed with the philosopher Jean-Sol Partre and spends all of his money. Chick’s wife Alise hopes to regain his attention by getting Partre to stop writing book. She ends up killing him after he refuses. However, at the same time Chick is murdered by the seneschal, who has come to collect his tax money.
Ultimately the characters in this story have control over who they love and have sex with. The actions that were taken by Alise and Colin to save their spouses from themselves and death, respectively were choices that they had control over, just as Chick had some control over his interest in Partre until it became an obsession. The story also has a slight postmodern feel as the story takes place in the future, and Vian incorporates surrealism and the absurd within the story. Some examples of the surreal and absurd that litter the story are the ever changing rooms, the mice that clean the house, a heart-snatching tool, and a pianocktail, which is a robotic bartender/ and instrument that creates drinks by playing music on the piano. Postmodern techniques are also shown in the way that everything literally starts falling apart when Chloe is diagnosed as being terminally ill with a water lily growing on her heart and lungs. The ceiling crumbles, the glass and tiles break and the rooms shrink in on themselves.
Djebar writes about the neo-harem which are the places that women create for themselves within society. These neo-harems are separated into gendered castes that are altered at times by war and conflict but always return to the status quo, which is consists of social isolation from men. The women in the novel exist within the social boundaries of their culture while also participating in the war for independence. The story also speaks of the tragedy of war and the impact that it has on women. This impact is shown when the women, who had all played a part in obtaining the independence were essentially returned to the lives that they had experienced previously by being pushed into harems and mental institutions (which were basically harems) do to systematic drug use.
In the book Leila had participated in the war. However, when the war is over she is not treated like a hero, but is instead thrown into the lowest social caste. This caste is made up of the unwanted members of Algerian society, the lepers, prostitutes and the poor. The reason that she has become an outcast is partly because her memories of the events that took place on the battlefield have caused her schizophrenia to manifest, “nightmare: the looks of women veiled in white or black but their faces freed, who were weeping silently behind a windowpane these disappeared aunts and grandmothers, were weeping over her, over her dismantled memory” (Djebar pg. 22)
This causes her to become addicted to drugs. Her addiction to drugs along with her schizophrenia are as a reflection of the contradictions that existed in Algeria at the time. In the book she is referred to as a heroine, this is a clever play on words. It is her actions in the war that have made her a heroine. However, it is her heroism that has caused her addiction to heroin. This is because while she and other women fought for liberation, the only freedom she can achieve from the society that she lives in through the use of opiates.
This was a time where the people were caught between the modern and traditional worlds. She argues against that fact that the women returned to the harems that they had existed in prior to the war, saying that they had been “fire carriers” (Djebar pg. 44) during the war. Her anger at this is compounded by the fact that the women are no longer forced to remain by having barb wire placed on the windows, but choose to be there. Leila says that Woman’s Day is the day that the women of Algeria can return to the glory that they had experienced in the war. This is because in the time that has passed since the war, which is about twenty years in the story. Leila has watched the women who had fought alongside men for the independence of the country get regulated to second class citizens due to Islamic Fundamentalism. Women like Leila who had fought for the country are now seen as being mad women whose only place within society is as prostitutes or in a mental hospital. A part of the reason for this is because that war has made her barren, so the men of Algeria do not see her as a fitting partner because she cannot reproduce. Another probably more important reason for this is because the war has caused her to become schizophrenic. However, that may have had little to do with her placement within the caste system and it seemed that the harem was where she had lived prior to the war.
She believes that while she and the other women were fighting alongside the men in order to prevent the French from taking over their country, that the men had only used the women to obtain victory. They had never intended to follow through on the promises of equality that they had promised the women. Despite the fact that many women had to balance the both the hardship of motherhood and war, which had a strong psychological effect on many women. Historically, after the War of Independence the idea of feminism or equality for women was incompatible with the way that the government of Algeria wanted to proceed. This is a reason why Leila is placed in an asylum and her friend Sarah is put back into the position that she was given at her birth.
then like me behind the delirium of fever (for you knowSarah, I do have a fever, I shall always have a fever), werethey really still alive? The bombs are still exploding butover twenty years: close to our eyes, for we no longer seethe outside, we only see the obscene looks, the bombs explodeagainst our bellies and I am—she screamed—I am everywoman’s sterile belly in one! (Djebar pg. 45)
Sarah is another woman who fought in the war. She was a freedom fighter and gained a “wide, bluish scar” (Djebar pg. 34) in battle. She shows the scar to Anne a Frenchwoman who had no idea that women were amongst the fighters. It is for this reason that Sarah does not tell her that the scar was a war injury instead allowing her to remain unaware that there were of “women outside under attack under submachine guns, white veils with bloodstained holes” (Djebar pg. 34). She seems to do this to preserve Anne’s innocence regarding the war as she started thinking about the differences in her early life in Algeria compared to that of Anne’s in France “How had Sarah squandered her youth? Somewhere, this way, in these open streets, then, in prison crammed together with other adolescent girls” (Djebar pg. 34).
In The Lover by Marguerite Duras, Helene is reflecting on her life as a young woman in Vietnam (Indochina in the book) and the older Chinese lover that she had when she was fifteen. Helene was born in Saigon to French parents and eventually her father died and her mother lost all of their money in bad investments. Her mother is trying to get her money refunded and spends most of the story catering to her eldest son, and treating the Vietnamese people poorly and being racist against them and the Chinese man. This causes issues with Helene’s relationship with her mother, who becomes abusive towards her. Her mother also wants her to do better in math, rather than the French that she excels in. This is because the mother does not see much use in becoming a writer, which is Helene’s aspiration. Her mother also seems to suffer from depression as she tends to lock herself away in her room subsequently neglecting her children. One of Helene’s brothers dies as a result of this neglect.
Unlike the women in The Women of Algiers in Their Apartment who dress conservatively and do not use their clothing as a way to reflect their identity. Helene’s style of dress shows that she is looking for her identity. She tends to wear provocative clothing in order to get attention. For example, she wears a low cut dress with a fedora and a gold belt and shoes knowing that her outfit “might make people laugh” (Duras). This is the outfit that causes her Chinese lover to pay attention to her. Soon they begin a sexual relationship, she is 15 and he is 29. Her mother does not object to the relationship because the man is very wealthy and her and her sons are lazy and hope that the man will provide for them as long as he is dating Helene. It was at this time that Helene became aware that sex was power. This again was in contrast to the experiences of Leila and Sarah whose sexuality was seen as a weakness and a reason for them to be oppressed within society.
In the aforementioned books gender plays the following role in The Women of Algiers gender in the most important element of the story. This is because it is such an important aspect in regards to how the women of the country are treated. The country follows strict Islamic customs which mean that the rights of women are severely limited and people are placed within a caste system. This seems to follow a sense of Orientalism that exist in other Asian countries like India that also use the caste system. However, most Indian people are Hindi. Women who are placed in the lowest caste generally become prostitutes. This is the caste that Sarah, Leila and Anne are put into. The reason for their placement into this caste is because Leila has developed schizophrenia due to her time on the battlefield, Sarah has a large scar from an injury she obtained in the war, this makes her unable to find a man willing to marry her, and Anne is a French woman who was captured. This once again shows an existential society because the women within the novel have no power in their existence despite the fact that they helped obtain the freedom that their male counterparts enjoy within society.
While The Women of Algiers portrays a male centric society, due to that fact that it is based on history and takes place in an area of the world where men dominate all aspects of society. The relationships of Foam on the Daze are a bit more balanced. This is because the four characters share power and power itself is not that important within the book. This is seen in the beginning when Colin give Chick half of his money just because he wants him to be able to get married. The gesture was not done as a way to exert power over Chick, but because Colin wanted him to be as happy as he was. Chick would eventually become obsessed with Partre, which is interesting because by doing this Vian was having Chick take on traditionally feminine behavior.
Women are generally seen as being more likely to develop obsessions or crushes then males. In the book Alise walks the line between masculinity/ femininity because while she is upset that Chick is not paying enough attention (feminine) to her she takes action by going to the responsible for contributing to Chick obsession and tells him to stay away from Chick (Masculine). In the relationship of Colin and Chloe, Chloe seems to maintain her femininity throughout the novel. From the first time that Colin spots her at the club when she is wearing the red lipstick and even as she is slowly dying Chloe remains the ideal wife and patient. Colin on the other hand displays behaviors like Chick that are associated with being more feminine. He goes to extremes to try to save Chloe, even obtaining a job when his money ran out. Then when Chloe finally died he became overcome with grief to the point that his house was literally destroying itself.
Finally, in The Lover Helene at fifteen and a half has power over her lover, who is described as being very thin and weak, not just physically, but mentally as well. This is why he allowed his father to separate him from Helene, because he saw her as “a little white prostitute” (Duras pg. 26) it is also why he was willing to pay her mother’s bills in order to keep seeing Helene and why supposedly decades later he told Helene that he was still in love with her.
Looking at love within the context of the three novels one can see that it does not really exist for any of the characters, even though Colin and Chloe come the closest. Leila, Sarah and Anne work in a Harem. For them love is forbidden because of their status in society. For Helene she freely admits that she does not love the man and that she is only using him in order that her family’s expenses are paid. Her lover while claiming years later that he was still in love with her, saying “I've known you for years. Everyone says you were beautiful when you were young, but I want to tell you I think you're more beautiful now than then. Rather than your face as a young woman, I prefer your face as it is now. Ravaged.” (Duras pg. 42). Nonetheless he was willing to lose her because he was not willing to lose his inheritance for her or to admit to the country that he was in a relationship with her because he feared the repercussion from society. Helene describes this weakness as not having the “strength to love beyond his fright” (Duras pg.29). Part of this perceived weakness was because the man was Chinese and during this period in history many European countries were trying to colonize Asia and as was typical of people who were from Europe they perceived anyone that had darker skin then them as being inferior.
Finally, in the case of Chick and Alise, Chick seems to be fickle in his emotions. At first he is in love with Alise, but when he becomes obsessed with Partre, Alise and her love no longer matter. Alise’s need to remove Partre from Chick’s life is not based on love as it is based on the need to be the most important person in Chick’s life. In the case of Colin and Chloe it does actually seem as though he truly loves her as he does everything he can to try to save her and becomes despondent when she dies.
In regards to sex in the novels in Women in Algiers sex is used to demean the women and to separate them from women who are the types that the men of the country would actually marry. This is distinction is shown in the novel by having any intercourse or reference to intercourse within the harem be referred to as sex. This is because it indicates an activity that foregoes an emotional connection. This also pertains to Helene and her relationship with the Chinese man. In the book she realizes that her attractiveness gives her power over men and unlike Sarah, Leila and Anne who do not seem comfortable with this aspect of their sexuality, Helene relishes it. She realizes that her ability to attract and men and the fact that they are willing to pay to spend time with her as being beneficial in that she can get men to support her family. Lastly, in regards to the characters in Foam on the Daze, all four seem to have actually been in love at some point and there is really no indication that they fell out of love with each other. It is obvious that Colin and Chloe were in love up until she died. Chick told Alise that he wanted to split, but this seemed to be more because she was interfering with his obsession than him no longer loving her.
In conclusion love played an important part in Foam on the Daze along with existentialism and post modernism which is seen in the surreal and absurd elements of the story along with the spoonerism of Jean-Paul Sartre’s name into Jean- Sol Partre. There does not seem to be any orientalism as there is no colonization or since of superiority over any race or ethnic group. Women in Algiers deals with both sex and gender, but not love this is because the book is about the unfair treatment of women and have they only seem to have value when they are benefitting the men. It is also about how women have no say in their lives. Orientalism plays a role here as Islam was started in the Middle East. Existentialism is also important because it is something that the women in the story do not have. They have no control over their own lives. There was no postmodernism that was obvious in my reading. In The Lover sex is the main theme and the book uses Orientalism in that Helene’s parents are French people who own a plantation and seem to treat Asian people with racist attitudes. There is also the use of existentialism in that Helene both has control and does not have control over what happens to her. She does not have control in the fact that her mother is making her continue her relationship with the Chinese man, but she does gain some control once she realizes the power that sex gives her.
Works Cited
Djebar, Assia. Women of Algiers in Their Apartment. Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1992. Print.
Duras, Marguerite. The Lover. New York: Pantheon Books, 1985. Print.
Teets, Sam. "The Work of Assia Djebar: (Re)Imagining Algerian Women's Embodied Experiences." CU Scholar Institutional Repository of the University of Colorado Boulder. University of Colorado, 2014. Web. 19 Aug. 2016.
Vian, Boris, and Brian Harper. Foam of the Daze: Boris Vian ; [translated by Brian Harper]. TamTam, 2003. Print.
