ABSTRACT
This chapter examines two postcolonial life-writing texts in order to explore the ways in which space is articulated in the autobiographical production of some particularly disenfranchised people in an embattled cultural terrain. It looks specifically at the autobiographical writings of two Algerian women writing in French in the post-Independence period to examine the ways in which these literary texts map their relationships with space. For Malika Mokeddem, in Mes Hommes, the primary subject matter is that of gender relations in the aftermath of Algerian independence. In this very different life writing narrative, rather than a father who was tragically lost in the anti-colonial struggle, the paternal figure is over-present and over-bearing, a willing proponent of a kind of neo-colonial gender conservatism. Yet, drawing again on Kaplan's notion of the potential of 'outlaw' life-writing texts, both can be said to represent forms of literary cartography.
