Constructions masculines chez Saphia Azzeddine et Malika Mokeddem
Social constructions of masculine identities in Saphia Azzeddine and Malika Mokeddem works

Summary/Abstract: Gender issues are gaining more and more research space in different domains and fields of study. Whether in sociology, anthropology, cultural studies or the field of gender studies, scholars are increasingly looking at how the natural difference of sex creates a cultural difference of gender. The point is therefore, once again, to highlight the nature / culture dichotomy and to take an interest in the effects it engenders in the representations that we elaborate, that we perpetuate or try to change. There is a masculine condition as well as a feminine condition, because the two genres are subject to categorizations and frames which impose on them, through a way of thinking considered correct and therefore immutable, a standardization of behaviors at all levels of life. There is a distribution of roles and a hierarchy binding not only for women, but also for men, forced to accept their masculinity as intrinsically superior to the other gender or to build their manhood, an ideal of masculinity. Our analysis will be focused on two novels of North African literature: Saphia Azzeddine’s Mon père est femme de ménage and Malika Mokeddem’s L’Interdite. We will try to see, by studying the main male characters, how the question of masculinity is treated by these two authors through the universe they create. These include characters who, one way or another, whether voluntarily or not, do not conform to the standards imposed by the society in which they live and who are going through a process of identity (re)construction. Although part of different generations, the two authors describe almost the same problems and dilemmas that the characters must overcome by undergoing the pressure of the social norm.

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