Archiving and Intertextuality in Postcolonial Women’s Fiction: Minor Detail by Adania Shibli and “The Woman in Pieces” by Assia Djebar

Abstract

Settler colonialism poses a dual threat, endangering both the land and history, as the danger of historical erasure persists through the ongoing colonial legacies. This dissertation aims to study how Adania Shibli in Minor Detail and Assia Djebar in “The Woman in Pieces”, reflect the ongoing peril of historical erasure wrought by settler colonialism and its aftermath through a nuanced interplay between archiving and intertextuality. This research combines comparative intertextual analysis and thematic interpretations to investigate how the intersection of archiving and intertextuality, in both texts, challenges historical erasure and highlights the voice of marginalized women. The study examines the ways in which Shibli and Djebar use archiving to preserve minority voices and national narratives, particularly through collecting and maintaining historical records of cultural significance. It also looks at the implications of archiving on the preservation of cultural heritage, avoiding historical erasure, and correcting female (mis)representation. Similarly, it examines how intertextuality enhances the role and significance of archival records, granting it a more inclusive view on representation, and by extension female agency within the postcolonial context.