Women Fight, Women Write: Reclaiming Algeria’s Silenced Voices
In this inaugural episode of the Lateral Humanities Podcast at the University of Colorado Boulder, Malick LO interviews Professor Emerita Mildred Mortimer about her decades-long engagement with Francophone literatures. The episode traces Mortimer’s intellectual journey, her work on women’s writing and the Algerian War, the role of literature as counter‑archive, encounters with memory and trauma, translation challenges, and the importance of teaching and mentorship. Particular attention is given to her book, Women Fight, Women Write: Texts on the Algerian War [https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/5115/] (University of Virginia Press, 2018) which offers a critical re-evaluation of women’s roles in the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962).
Selected Readings
Mortimer, Mildred P. Journeys Through the French African Novel. Heinemann; J. Currey, 1990.
Mortimer, Mildred P. Maghrebian Mosaic: A Literature in Transition. L. Rienner, 2001.
Mortimer, Mildred P. Women Fight, Women Write: Texts on the Algerian War. University of Virginia Press, 2018.
Mortimer, Mildred P. Writing from the Hearth: Public, Domestic, and Imaginative Space in Francophone Women's Fiction of Africa and the Caribbean. Lexington Books, 2007.
Bâ, Mariama. Une Si Longue Lettre. Nouvelles éditions africaines, 1980.
Cassin, Barbara, et al. Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Visual and Documentary References
Assia Djebar, La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua
Fatima Sissani, documentary works on memory and women’s narratives
Nassima Guessoum, documentary works on Algerian women’s testimonies
Audio Credits
Blow Up by Karol Beffa [https://www.karolbeffa.net/]
Source: KAROL BEFFA: Blow-up, pour quatuor de vents et piano (2008). [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPuLsZ5zFr0]
Les mots du récit by Felwine Sarr [https://scholars.duke.edu/person/Felwine.Sarr]
Source: Les mots du récit [https://open.spotify.com/search/les%20mots%20du%20recit%20felwine%20sarr]
Jaamu Africa by Ismael LO
Source: Jaamu Africa [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWHzH6UlDDU]
Production
Recorded and produced by Malick LO [https://www.colorado.edu/frenchitalian/malick-lo]
Podcast Logo Design: Lulu Heffernan [https://www.colorado.edu/frenchitalian/lulu-heffernan]
