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Examining Djebar’s third novel, Les Enfants du nouveau monde, (Children of the New World: A Novel of the Algerian War), her first to depict the Algerian Revolution, I argue that it not only reveals the political, feminist, and aesthetic elements that define her later work, but is a wellcrafted text that is politically correct in its anti-colonial stance, sbversive in its feminist objectives; it expresses Djebar’s belief that Algerian independence alone will not liberate women. The novelist discerns a significant gender gap regarding the goals of liberation: Algerian men struggle against French colonialism, women seek agency within their family and society and political independence from France. In my analysis, I ground the text historically (Amrane-Minne), and apply anti-colonial and feminist theory (Fanon; Mernissi). Assia Djebar published four novels, a play, and a collection of poetry before achieving international recognition in the 1980s with her collection of short stories, Femmes d’Alger dans leur appartement (1980) and her novel, L’amour, la fantasia (1985).1 Yet numerous critics make no mention of her earlier writings in their study of her work.2 As Clarisse Zimra notes in her afterward to Children of the New World, (the English translation of Les Enfants du nouveau monde), the lack of critical recognition accorded Djebar’s pre-1980 texts has given readers an incomplete picture of her oeuvre.3 It is fitting to return to Djebar’s early texts, examining them for thematic and stylistic elements that will add to, if not complete, the picture. Djebar’s third novel, Les Enfants du nouveau monde, (Children of the New World: A Novel of the Algerian War) is her first to treat events of the Algerian Revolution. A fresco of Algeria in the throes of war, it is overtly anti-colonial and feminist, supportive of Algeria’s struggle for independence from France, and critical of the oppressive nature of indigenous patriarchy. Exploring the process of decolonization in Algeria, the writer discerns a significant gender gap between Algerian men and women: men struggle to throw off the yoke of French colonialism; women, the captives of a colonial structure and an indigenous patriarchy, seek agency within their family and society as well as political independence from the colonial power. The narrative structure of the novel marks the beginning of the fragmented, multiple voiced narrative for which the novelist has come to be known.
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