The comparison between Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Ahlam Mosteghanemi’s Memory in the Flesh

Abstract

Considering literature as a mirror of a society, this dissertation introduces the social etiquette of two famous and influential authors in world literature, who are mainly Jane Austen and Ahlam Mostghanemi, and the comparison between their two popular works: Pride and Prejudice and Memory in the Flesh. Both authors lived and experienced different worlds. It can be impossible to understand their writings unless studying the social context of their lives. Jane Austen was a British writer who was active during the Regency era. In Austen’s world, men were expected to be the “gentlemen” and women were expected to be the “ladies”. In other words, in Austen’s time women were completely dominated by men, they did not have much choice when it came to their future. They could either be married or become governesses if they were educated enough. On the other hand, Ahlam Mostghanemi is an Algerian writer who has been called” the world’s best-known arabophone woman novelist”. She was the first Algerian woman writer to publish a novel in the Arabic language. Her work, is therefore, very significant in the context of the Arab women’s writing and feminism. In her novels, she expresses a particular understanding of social and political events, and carries the effect of these events on individuals by combining love stories with political and social history. Although the two books Pride and Prejudice and Memory in the Flesh are written in different eras, they have many things in common. However, the two also have some differences that are represented in this dissertation.