Leïla Aouchal

Leïla Aouchal
Born	Liliane Hélène Roberte Constantin 13 July 1936 Caen
Died	21 April 2013(2013-04-21) (aged 76) Gonesse
Occupation	writer
Nationality	French / Algerian
Notable work	Une Autre Vie

Leïla Aouchal (born Liliane Hélène Roberte Constantin;[1] 13 July 1936 – 21 April 2013) was a French-Algerian writer.[2]

Life

She was born to a middle-class French family in Caen, France, in 1936, and married an Algerian immigrant at the age of 19, moving with him to Algeria.[3] Upon the country's 1962 achievement of independence, Aouchal became an Algerian citizen.[3]

Despite being raised as a Catholic, she gradually became "Algerianized"; she began to read the Koran, converted to Islam and avoided Christian festivals in Algeria.[4] Aouchal died in Gonesse in 2013.[1]

Works

In 1970, Aouchal published Une Autre Vie, an autobiographical account of her experience of integrating into Algerian society amidst a civil war.[3][5] This would be her only work.[6]

Despite her brief writing career, she was cited as being included in the first generation of female Algerian writers using French language (along with such names as Fadhma Aït Mansour and Taos Amrouche). These individuals were born between 1882–1928, publishing their texts between 1960–1980. Common themes are the "self-discovery" of the authors, with texts set during the Algerian War and the evolution of the female condition during this time in the country.[7]

References

1. "CONSTANTIN Liliane Helene Roberte". matchID.
2. Gikandi, Simon (2003). Encyclopedia of African Literature. London: Taylor & Francis. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-134-58223-5. OCLC 1062304793. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
3. Qader, Nasrin (2003). "Aouchal, Leïla". In Gikandi, Simon (ed.). Encyclopedia of African Literature. Routledge. p. 34. ISBN 9781134582235. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
4. MacMaster, Neil (2011). "The Role of European Women and the Question of Mixed Couples in the Algerian Nationalist Movement in France, circa 1918–1962". French Historical Studies. 34 (2): 357–386. doi:10.1215/00161071-1157376.
5. Déjeux, Jean (1994). La littérature féminine de langue française au Maghreb (in French). KARTHALA Editions. pp. 126. ISBN 9782865375004.
6. Messaoud, Amar Naït (January 15, 2004). "De Caen à El Kseur, la métamorphose par l'amour – Une autre vie de Leïla Aouchal". La Dépêche de Kabylie (in French). Archived from the original on November 22, 2016. Retrieved November 21, 2016.
7. Kassoul, Aïcha (1999). "Femmes en texte. Petite histoire de la littérature algérienne d'expression française 1857–1950". Insaniyat (in French and English). 9 (9): 67–72. doi:10.4000/insaniyat.8257. S2CID 190571496.