Assia Djebar

Assia Djebar آسيا جبار
Assia Djebar in 1992.
Born	Fatima-Zohra Imalayen (1936-06-30) 30 June 1936 Cherchell, Algeria
Occupation	novelist, essayist, professor
Nationality	Algeria
Alma mater	École Normale Supérieure
Subjects	feminism
Notable work(s)	La Soif, Les Impatients, Les Enfants du Nouveau Monde, Les Alouettes Naïves
Notable award(s)	Neustadt International Prize for Literature, Yourcenar Prize
Signature

Assia Djebar is the pen-name of Fatima-Zohra Imalayen (born 30 June 1936), an Algerian novelist, translator and filmmaker. Most of her works deal with obstacles faced by women, and she is noted for her feminist stance. She is "frequently associated with women's writing movements, her novels are clearly focused on the creation of a genealogy of Algerian women, and her political stance is virulently anti-patriarchal as much as it is anti-colonial." 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. For the entire body of her work she was awarded the 1996 Neustadt International Prize for Literature.

Early life

Djebar was born in Cherchell, 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.

Career

In 1957, she published her first novel, La Soif ("The Thirst"). Fearing her father's disapproval, she had it published under the pen name 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 1985, Djebar published L'Amour, la fantasia, (translated as Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade, Heinemann 1993) where she "repeatedly states her ambivalence about language, about her identification as a Western-educated, Algerian, feminist, Muslim intellectual, about her role as spokesperson for Algerian women as well as for women in general."

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.

Awards

In 1996, Djebar won the prestigious Neustadt International Prize for Literature for her contribution to world literature. The following year, she took home the Yourcenar Prize. In 2000, she won the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.

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 (translated as Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade, Heinemann 1993)
• Ombre sultane 1987 (translated by Dorothy Blair as A Sister to Scheherazade, Heinemann 1987)
• Loin de Médine, (translated by Dorothy Blair as Far from Medina 1991)
• Vaste est la prison, 1995 (translated by Betsy Wing as So Vast the Prison: A Novel, 2001)
• Le blanc de l'Algérie, 1996. tr. Algerian White, 2002
• Oran, langue morte, 1997 (translated by Tegan Raleigh as The Tongue's Blood Does Not Run Dry: Algerian Stories, 2006)
• Les Nuits de Strasbourg, 1997
• Femmes d'Alger dans leur appartement (translated by Marjolijn de Jager as Women of Algiers in Their Apartment, 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 June 17, 2005, p 34
• Bédarida, Catherine: « L’Académie française ouvre ses portes à Assia Djebar. ». In: Le Monde, Samedi June 18, 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, June 25, 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 Sebbar. 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 Comparative Literature 20, Series Editors C.C. Barfoot and Theo D’haen, 1998

« Immortelle » Éditorial. In: Le Monde, Samedi June 18, 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 June 18, 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
• Assia Djebar at the Internet Movie Database
• (French) L'Académie française