Mythocritical Analysis of Female Crime in Puisque mon cœur est mort and Nulle autre voix by Maïssa Bey

Abstract

This article analyzes the novels Puisque mon cœur est mort and Nulle autre voix by Maïssa Bey, where the female protagonists, driven by a desire for revenge, take criminal paths to seek justice. Using a mythocritical approach, the study examines the violence of these heroines through the mythical figures of Medea, Clytemnestra, Philomela, and the phoenix. The findings reveal that Maïssa Bey reinvests these myths, both explicitly and implicitly, to explore female criminality, linking acts of revenge to themes of rebirth and resistance against social oppression. The article concludes that these mythological parallels shed light on the complexity of the characters' motivations and enrich the understanding of female criminality in a literary context.