Schahrazede Longou

Assistant Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures (French)

Contact 309-341-7488 slongou@knox.edu

General Interests
"My thesis focuses on three women writers (Maïssa Bey, Malika Mokeddem, and Leïla Marouane). My dissertation studies fictional narratives by women who have emerged in the Algerian context of the 1980s and 1990s and who struggle against the violence and patriarchy inherent in traditional Algerian society. I analyze the thematic, stylistic, and rhetorical strategies in three novels: N'zid, Surtout ne te retourne pas and La Jeune fille et la mère. Through close readings of the texts, I focus on how these writers combat the collective and ancestral silencing of women by transforming through textual violence an identity inherited from colonial and patriarchal discourses in order to construct a new subjectivity that escapes traditional structures. I also show how these novelists express their opposition to the fundamentalists' views to escape from the reactionary attitudes of fanatics and those who advocate an uncompromising stance towards women."

Years at Knox: 2008 to present

Education
Ph.D., French and Francophone Studies, 2009, University of Iowa.
M.A., 2001, University of Iowa.
B.A., High Honors in Teaching French as a Second Language, 1996, University of Souma, Blida, Algeria.

Teaching Interests
The twentieth century French novel, Francophone North African Literature and Critical Theory, postcolonial Algeria, cultural identity and diaspora, literature and cinema of immigration in France, and Algerian women writers.

Selected Professional Accomplishments

Honors/Grants
T. Anne Cleary International Fellowship, University of Iowa, 2005.
Graduate Summer Fellowship, University of Iowa, 2005.
Election to ΦΣ?, Foreign Language Honor Society, Illinois College, 2002.
Algerian Government Scholarship, Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur, M.E.S (Ministry of Higher Education), 1992-1996.

Presentations
"Re-naître à soi pour la pérennité de l'art: Le voyage de l'Ulysse tout en crinière dans un roman de Malika Mokeddem." 37th Annual African Literature Association Conference, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, April 13-17, 2011.

"Bataille sur deux fronts: Jeanne d'Arc, l'Algérienne des Djebels ou le Discours de la Résistance chez Leila Marouane." 25th Annual Francophone Studies International Colloquium (Congrès Annuel du Conseil International d'Études Francophones), Aix-en-Provence, France, May 29-June 5, 2011.

"Le séisme au centre de la création littéraire chez Maïssa Bey dans Surtout ne te retourne pas: "Quand la réplique se fait double." African Literature Association 35th Anniversary Conference, University of Vermont, April 2009.

"Quête de soi et de l'ailleurs: N'zid, ou l'interminable traversée des langues, des cultures et des peuples." African Literature Association 34th Anniversary Conference, University of Western Illinois, April 2008.

"L'Enseignement de l'Expression Ecrite en FLE." (Français Langue Etrangère) Poster presentation, Foreign Language Acquisition Research and Education Poster Session, University of Iowa, 1999.

Recruitment presentation on Francophonie, visiting high school students, 1999.

Campus & Community Involvement
Member, African Literature Association.
Member, American Association of Teachers of French.
Member, Conseil International d'Etudes Francophones.
Member, Modern Language Association.