Assia Djebar
Encyclopedia
Assia Djebar is the pen-name of Fatima-Zohra Imalayen (born 30 June 1936), an Algeria
n novelist, translator and filmmaker. Most of her works deal with obstacles faced by women, and she is noted for her feminist
stance. Djebar is considered to be one of North Africa
's pre-eminent and most influential writers. She was elected to the Académie française
on 16 June 2005, the first writer from the Maghreb
to achieve such recognition.
, a coastal town near Algiers
from Berber
descent. Her family lived in a little village nearby called Mouzaïaville. There, she attended the primary school where her father taught French
. She later attended a boarding school in Blida
. In 1955, Djebar became the first Algerian woman to be accepted at the École Normale Supérieure
, an elite Parisian college.
Assia Djebar. Another book, Les Impatients, followed the next year. Also in 1958, she and Ahmed Ould-Rouïs began a marriage that would eventually end in divorce.
In 1962, Djebar published Les Enfants du Nouveau Monde, and followed that in 1967 with Les Alouettes Naïves. She remarried in 1980, to the Algerian poet Malek Alloula. The couple lives in Paris
, France
.
In 2005, Djebar was accepted into the Académie Française
, a prestigious institution tasked with guarding the heritage of the French language
.
She is currently a professor of Francophone literature at New York University
.
for her contribution to world literature
. The following year, she took home the Yourcenar Prize. Djebar has also consistently been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature
.
« Immortelle » Éditorial. In: Le Monde, Samedi 18 juin 2005, p 17
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
n novelist, translator and filmmaker. Most of her works deal with obstacles faced by women, and she is noted for her feminist
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
stance. Djebar is considered to be one of North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
's pre-eminent and most influential writers. She was elected to the Académie française
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
on 16 June 2005, the first writer from the Maghreb
Maghreb
The Maghreb is the region of Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. It includes five countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara...
to achieve such recognition.
Early life
Djebar was born in CherchellCherchell
Cherchell is a seaport town in the Province of Tipaza, Algeria, 55 miles west of Algiers. It is the district seat of Cherchell District. As of 1998, it had a population of 24,400.-Ancient history:...
, a coastal town near Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
from Berber
Berber people
Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...
descent. Her family lived in a little village nearby called Mouzaïaville. There, she attended the primary school where her father taught French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. She later attended a boarding school in Blida
Blida
Blida is a city in Algeria. It is the capital of Blida Province, and it is located about 45 km south-west of Algiers, the national capital. The name Blida, i.e...
. In 1955, Djebar became the first Algerian woman to be accepted at the École Normale Supérieure
École Normale Supérieure
The École normale supérieure is one of the most prestigious French grandes écoles...
, an elite Parisian college.
Career
In 1957, she published her first novel, La Soif ("The Thirst"). Fearing her father's disapproval, she had it published under the pen namePen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
Assia Djebar. Another book, Les Impatients, followed the next year. Also in 1958, she and Ahmed Ould-Rouïs began a marriage that would eventually end in divorce.
In 1962, Djebar published Les Enfants du Nouveau Monde, and followed that in 1967 with Les Alouettes Naïves. She remarried in 1980, to the Algerian poet Malek Alloula. The couple lives in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
In 2005, Djebar was accepted into the Académie Française
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
, a prestigious institution tasked with guarding the heritage of the French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
.
She is currently a professor of Francophone literature at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
.
Awards
In 1996, Djebar won the prestigious Neustadt International Prize for LiteratureNeustadt International Prize for Literature
The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is a biennial award for literature sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and its international literary publication, World Literature Today. It is widely considered to be the most prestigious international literary prize after the Nobel Prize in...
for her contribution to world literature
World literature
World literature refers to literature from all over the world, including African literature, American literature, Arabic literature, Asian literature, Australasian literature, Caribbean Literature, English literature, European literature, Indian literature, Latin American literature, Persian...
. The following year, she took home the Yourcenar Prize. Djebar has also consistently been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
.
Works
- La Soif, 1957
- Les impatients, 1958
- Les Enfants du Nouveau Monde, 1962
- Les Alouettes naïves, 1967
- Poème pour une algérie heureuse, 1969
- Rouge l'aube
- L'Amour, la fantasia, 1985 (tr. Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade, Heinemann 1993)
- Ombre sultane 1987 (A Sister to Scheherazade, tr. Dorothy Blair, Heinemann 1987)
- Loin de Médine, 1991
- Vaste est la prison, 1995 (So vast the prison: A novel, tr. Betsy Wing, 2001)
- Le blanc de l'Algérie, 1996. tr. Algerian White, 2002
- Oran, langue morte, 1997 (The Tongue's Blood Does Not Run Dry: Algerian Stories, tr. Tegan Raleigh, 2006)
- Les Nuits de Strasbourg, 1997
- Femmes d'Alger dans leur appartement, 2002
- La femme sans sépulture, 2002
- La disparition de la langue française, 2003
- "Nulle part dans la maison de mon père", 2008
Cinema
- La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua, 1977
- La Zerda ou les chants de l'oubli, 1979
Analysis
- Aïssaoui, Mohammed: « De l’Algérie à l’Académie ». In: Le Figaro, Vendredi 17 juin 2005, p 34
- Bédarida, Catherine: « L’Académie française ouvre ses portes à Assia Djebar. ». In: Le Monde, Samedi 18 juin, p 30
- Brossard, Nicole, Louise H. Forsyth et al.: Mises en scène d’écrivains. Sainte-Foy, Quebec: Les éditions Le Griffon d’argile, collection Trait d’union, 1993
- Calle-Gruber, Mireille: « Refaire les contes dans la langue adverse. Assia Djebar, Oran, langue morte ». In: Ruhe, Ernstpeter: Assia Djebar. Studien zur Literatur und Geschichte des Maghreb. Band 5. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2001, pp 157–167
- Chikhi, Beïda: Assia Djebar. LIMAG-DJEBAR, le 25 juin 2005
- -: Les romans d’Assia Djebar. Algiers: Offices des publications universitaires, 1990
- -: Assia Djebar. Histoires et fantaisies. Paris: Presses universitaires de Paris-Sorbonne, 2006
- Clerc, Jeanne-Marie: Assia Djebar : écrire, transgresser, résister. Paris/Montreal: L’Harmattan, 1997
- Geyss, Roswitha: Bilinguisme littéraire et double identité dans la littérature maghrébine de langue française : le cas d’Assia Djebar et de Leïla SebbarLeila SebbarLeïla Sebbar is an Algerian author, born on 9 November 1941 to the daughter of a French mother and an Algerian father. She spent her youth in colonial Algeria but now lives in Paris...
. Vienna University, Thesis (Diplomarbeit), S/D Zohra Bouchentouf-Siagh, 2006 (400 pages) (available at the university library Vienna - UB Wien -, at the library of the department of romanistik studies Vienna - Fachbereichsbibliothek für Romanistik -; this excellent work will soon be published!) - -: « Bilinguisme / plurilinguisme littéraire et « double identité » dans la littérature maghrébine féminine : le cas d’Assia Djebar et de Leïla Sebbar ». Article.
- Grandguillaume, Gilbert: « La relation Père-Fils dans l’Amour la Fantasia d’Assia Djebbar (sic !) et Bandarshah Tayeb Salah ». In: Littératures maghrébines, colloque Jacqueline Arnaud, Paris XIII. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1990, Vol. 10, T. 1, pp 167–173 ; Article.
- Hornung, Alfred, Ernstpeter Ruhe: Postcolonialisme et autobiographie. Albert Memmi, Assia Djebar, Daniel Maximum. Amsterdam – Atlanta: Studies in comperative literature 20, Series Editors C.C. Barfoot and Theo D’haen, 1998
« Immortelle » Éditorial. In: Le Monde, Samedi 18 juin 2005, p 17
- Kirsch, Fritz Peter: « Quelques réflexions sur l’Histoire dans les œuvres narratives d’Assia Djebar ». In: Chroniques allemandes no 8-2000 : Assia Djebar en pays de langue allemande. Centre d’études et de recherches allemandes et autrichiennes contemporaines (CERAAC) de l’Université Stendhal-Grenoble III, pp 91–103
- Okresek, Christine: Re-dire l’Histoire. Travail fictionnel et recherches historiques dans trois romans d’Assia Djebar (L’Amour, la fantasia – Vaste est la prison – Le Blanc de l’Algérie). Vienna University, Thesis (Diplomarbeit), S/D Zohra Bouchentouf-Siagh, 1997(available at the university library Vienna - UB Wien -, at the library of the department of romanistik studies Vienna - Fachbereichsbibliothek für Romanistik -)
- Rezzoug, Simone: « Emergence d’une parole féminine dans l’histoire: le dernier roman d’Assia Djebar ». In: présence de femmes. Itinéraires d’apprentissage. Algiers: Hiwer, 1987, pp 106–110
- Ringrose, Priscilla: « Sistre and the Semiotic: Reinscribing Desire into Language ». In: Ruhe, Ernstpeter: Assia Djebar. Studien zur Literatur und Geschichte des Maghreb. Band 5. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2001, pp 91–105
- Rousseau, Christine: « Un écrivain-frontière entre l’Orient et l’Occident ». In: Le Monde, Samedi 18 juin, p 30
- Ruhe, Ernstpeter: « Fantasia en Alsace. Les Nuits de Strasbourg d’Assia Djebar ». In: Chroniques allemandes no 8-2000 : Assia Djebar en pays de langue allemande. Centre d’études et de recherches allemandes et autrichiennes contemporaines (CERAAC) de l’Université Stendhal-Grenoble III, pp 105–121
External links
- Official web site
- Assia Djebar: Bio, excerpts, interviews and articles in the archives of the Prague Writers' Festival
- So Vast a Prison L'Académie française