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A review by crm02121
Colonial Harem, Volume 21 by Malek Alloula
4.0
Very well-written book with devastating impact, especially the last few chapters. The Western eye will not feel too much about these images without their proper context, but what is witnessed is pure sexual violence in the colonial arena.
As Alloula says (in footnotes),
"Exoticism is always established by the gaze of the other."
"Colonialism is exoticism plus violence… the perfect expression of the violence of the gaze."
In reading this book, you become complicit in this violence, this indescribable psychosexual assault on the Algerian woman. Very difficult to finish, but damning in its consequences.
As Alloula says (in footnotes),
"Exoticism is always established by the gaze of the other."
"Colonialism is exoticism plus violence… the perfect expression of the violence of the gaze."
In reading this book, you become complicit in this violence, this indescribable psychosexual assault on the Algerian woman. Very difficult to finish, but damning in its consequences.