Le Lieu Tiers Comme Réappropriation D’une Mémoire Et Comme Possibilité D’être : Les Nuits De Strasbourg, A. Djebar (1997) The Third Location In Terms Of Memory Re-appropiation And A Possibility Of Being: Strasbourg Nights, A. Djebar (1997)

Abstract

Two Algerian friends, Thelja and Hawa, the former Algerian, Berber, francophone and arabophone, the later Algerian, Berber and Jewish, broke their oath of never loving “the enemy”, in other terms, a French and a German, respectively. In spite of their commitment, each of them fell in love with the inconceivable man. Betrayal having come to pass, the two enamoured women chose Strasbourg, a border city, haunted by History, to live their uneasy love. It’s in this third location, neither totally German, nor totally French, European and non-national, that History plays out, taking on carnal memory – one shared with the enemy man. Thus, in the lineaments and the hollows of the desiring bodies, History perishes, yielding to a hint of the possibility of being unpredictable. In this third place, two women allow themselves to transgress the weight of History, and subvert their identities as determined by it, in order to consider possible paths of liberty.