Analyse psychosociale de la littérature féminine en Mauritanie

Abstract

Over the years, Mauritanian Moorish women have managed to have their own poetry, an oral literature known locally as “tebrāʕ” translated into French by the word “ingenuity”, sometimes also “invention”. It is a love poetry originally used by girls or by women in general to express feelings that social norms prevent them from manifesting publicly. Tebrāʕ is deeper than a mere female expression of passion, it is rather a social and psychological state of mind that empowers women and helps them break taboos virtually for a short period of time. This article is an analytical reading of Tebrāʕ and presents new models and ways of examining this oral literature. It tries also to answer several questions which can be summarized as follows: Can this form of poetry be considered as a female literature? The closed circle where these words are composed and pronounced, can it be considered a therapy session? And above all, what power do these women and girls derive from this practice? This article is also a study of the perception of men and women in Mauritania in relation to this oral art practice based essentially on an empirical study that is the first of its kind in the country.