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dc.contributor.advisorDine, Philip
dc.contributor.authorChouiten, Lynda
dc.date.accessioned2013-08-01T12:10:16Z
dc.date.issued2012-12-10
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10379/3600
dc.description.abstractAs a woman who traversed the North African Orient in male costume, who spoke Arabic as well as French, who professed Islam while transgressing many of its instructions, Isabelle Eberhardt seems to fit within Mikhail Bakhtin¿s definition of the carnivalesque as the impulse to blend that which is usually kept separate by artificial boundaries and hierarchies. Nevertheless, this study seeks to demonstrate that her evolution in the Maghreb is carnivalesque only in appearance. Despite her transvestism, the writer left unquestioned the traditional definitions of masculinity and femininity; it is her subscription to the patriarchal equation of maleness with power and womanhood with weakness which makes her borrow a masculine identity. In a similar way, her appropriation of several elements of Oriental culture does not prevent her from reproducing age-old Orientalist stereotypes. As portrayed in her texts, the natives are either aestheticised as picturesque figures from a bygone age or denigrated as uncivilised, dark-minded creatures. And because Orientalism, as Edward Said has famously argued, is but a textual manifestation of colonialism, Eberhardt¿s Orientalist texts make her the accomplice of the colonialist project, a project which she also served by acting as a mediator between General Lyautey and native tribes. In discussing Eberhardt¿s involvement in the colonial mission and her perpetuation of the patriarchal and Orientalist traditions, this study questions the image of rebel-figure that is usually assigned to her. Instead, it shows the writer¿s literary and political gestures to be embedded in a marked quest for empowerment through the double (literary and political) conquest of the Orient.en_US
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ie/
dc.subjectWill-to-poweren_US
dc.subjectTraditionen_US
dc.subjectOrderen_US
dc.subjectHierarchyen_US
dc.subjectCarnivalesqueen_US
dc.subjectOrientalismen_US
dc.subjectColonialismen_US
dc.subjectPatriarchyen_US
dc.subjectNomadismen_US
dc.subjectIsabelle Eberhardten_US
dc.subjectDiscipline of Frenchen_US
dc.titleA Carnivalesque Mirage: the Orient in Isabelle Eberhardt's Writingsen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.contributor.funderProgramme for Research in Third-Level Institutions (PRTLI)en_US
dc.local.noteBorn in Switzerland, the writer Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904) spent most of her adult life in North Africa, where she gained the reputation of being an anti-colonial figure on account of her friendship with the natives. Contradicting this view, this study shows that she was less interested in defending the colonised that in fulfilling her quests for heroism and literary success.en_US
dc.description.embargo2016-12-01
dc.local.finalYesen_US
nui.item.downloads18039


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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland