Maïssa Bey - Hizya

“C’est peut être en moi que le poème dance.” Maïssa Bey ~ Hizya
A big deal is made out of Maïssa Bey's works. I never understood why and always found her novels were based on excellent ideas that her prose just couldn't carry. Still, she is one of the better known figures of women authors in Algeria, and given she has produced over 12 works of fiction (novels, short stories, theatre and poetry collection), it is obligatory that she should be included here.

Maïssa Bey revisited Hizya, Ben Guittoun's famous love poem, in her novel of the same name “Hizya“ (2015). By revisiting Ben Guittoun's poem in which a man recounts the loss of his beloved, Bey gave it a woman's voice, one searching for her beloved in today’s Algeria.


Maïssa Bey a revisité Hizya, le célèbre poeme de Ben Guittoun, dans son roman du même nom “Hizya”, publié en 2015 (Barzakh). En revisitant ce poème dans lequel un homme raconte la perte de sa bien aimée, Bey a donné à l’oeuvre une voix de femme, celle qui cherche son bien aimé, dans un contexte contemporain.