Motherhood Redefined: Pregnancy, Pleasure, and Protest in Assia Djebar's Les nuits de Strasbourg

Laden with maternal symbolism, language, and imagery, and structured to reflect the stages of pregnancy from conception, gestation, and birth, Les nuits de Strasbourg is the embodiment of a pregnancy through which Assia Djebar challenges and reimagines traditional models of motherhood by redefining and expanding its definition to include all who nurture while intertwining the maternal and the erotic throughout. By opening a space where the two can co-exist, Djebar is consistent with her larger body of feminist protest as she celebrates maternity in all of its forms while claiming female sexual pleasure as an integral component of the mother.