Vie(s) ordinaire(s) des (jeunes) femmes dans Un homme, ça ne pleure pas et La discrétion de Faïza Guène

Abstract

In the literature of the intranger.e.s –authors who claim an “in-between” (entre(-)deux) position (France vs. bled), both
oppressive and enriching –female characters play a central role. The mother appears as the pillar of the clan, responsible for her
daughters’ education and for transmitting a cultural heritage shaped by patriarchal and religious norms. As a child, she had her freedom taken away; as an adult, she leads a secluded existence in a country where she never truly feels at home. The heads of the clan – her husband and sons – as well as the community, expect young women to reproduce this model. Yet many of them, experiencing the socalled “crisis of adolescence,” refuse to submit to the injunctions of discretion and obedience, seeking instead to emancipate themselves. In this study, we analyze the daily practices of these two categories of characters – mothers and daughters – as depicted in Un homme, ça ne pleure pas (2014) and La Discrétion (2020) by Faïza Guène. First, we identify the timeless everyday life of mothers, frozen in childhood memories and marked by nostalgia for the bled. Then, we examine the “temporary” daily life of immigrant mothers in a stepmother land, characterized by confinement, silence, and
renunciation. Next, we explore the daily lives of the “proper daughters,” raised to uphold traditions. Finally, we delve into the
lives of the “daughters of sin,” who are ready to break social norms in pursuit of freedom, even at great cost. Through these female
figures, Faïza Guène questions the transmission of values, the struggle for emancipation, and the weight of social scrutiny in a
context of dual cultural belonging.