Who is Assia Djebar? - Thread
She was born Fatima-Zohra Imalayen in 1936 in Cherchell (close to Alger) to amazighi parents from Kabyle. Through her fathers teaching job she was able to attend a french private school. « Le pĂšre m’avait tendu la main pour me conduire Ă  l’école. »
Who is Assia Djebar? - ThreadShe was born Fatima-Zohra Imalayen in 1936 in Cherchell (close to Alger) to amazighi parents from Kabyle. Through her fathers teaching job she was able to attend a french private school. « Le pĂšre m’avait tendu la main pour me conduire Ă  l’école. »
Who is Assia Djebar? - ThreadShe was born Fatima-Zohra Imalayen in 1936 in Cherchell (close to Alger) to amazighi parents from Kabyle. Through her fathers teaching job she was able to attend a french private school. « Le pĂšre m’avait tendu la main pour me conduire Ă  l’école. »
She attended a high school in Algier where she was the only Muslim girl in her class. After graduating she moved to France to go to the École Normale supĂ©rieure de jeunes filles in 1955 as the first Algerian and Muslim woman to be educated at the elite school.
There she studied MENA History. She refused to take her final exams & participated in the student strikes due to the Algerian War of Independence. Around the same time she started wirting her first novel La Soif (1957) & decided to use the nom de plume 'Assia Djebar'
Due to her public rebellion against the French government and being vocal for Algeran rights, she needed political and social safety. She was also facing reprecussions from the director of her university for her writing itself, which blurred the lines between fiction & biography
She chose Djebar from one of the Prophets (pbuh) 50 names. It means "intransigeant". Her first name Assia she took on bc the pronounciation didn't change from arabic to french. She later found it's meaning"immortal rose".
Her writing can be characterised in two distinct phases.
The first phase was about finding yourself, your voice as a maghrebian writer and the role of women during the War of Independence. She published four books during this time: La Soif (1957), Les Impatients (1958), Les Enfants du nouveau monde (1962) & Les Alouettes naives (1967)
The first phase was about finding yourself, your voice as a maghrebian writer and the role of women during the War of Independence. She published four books during this time: La Soif (1957), Les Impatients (1958), Les Enfants du nouveau monde (1962) & Les Alouettes naives (1967)
The first phase was about finding yourself, your voice as a maghrebian writer and the role of women during the War of Independence. She published four books during this time: La Soif (1957), Les Impatients (1958), Les Enfants du nouveau monde (1962) & Les Alouettes naives (1967)
The first phase was about finding yourself, your voice as a maghrebian writer and the role of women during the War of Independence. She published four books during this time: La Soif (1957), Les Impatients (1958), Les Enfants du nouveau monde (1962) & Les Alouettes naives (1967)
She finished her studies in Tunis & did not return to Algeria til the end of the occupation in 1962, while staying in close contact with her family. After returning to Algeria she taught MENA history, film and literature at the University of Algier.
The writing break.
She didn't publish a book for 10 years & made 2 docu-movies in the process: La Nouba des femmes du mont Chenoua (1978) in which she shows algerien women as „witnesses, survivors and weavers of the social and economic fabric of the country" & La Zerda ou les chants de l'oubli 1979
This marks the return to her writing, caracterised by her forming French to a maghrebian rythme, taking inspiration from Algerian womens traditional storytelling. Her work becomes the tool to make the voices of her people heard.
She perfects this style with Femmes d'Alger (1980)
This marks the return to her writing, caracterised by her forming French to a maghrebian rythme, taking inspiration from Algerian womens traditional storytelling. Her work becomes the tool to make the voices of her people heard. She perfects this style with Femmes d'Alger (1980)
This marks the return to her writing, caracterised by her forming French to a maghrebian rythme, taking inspiration from Algerian womens traditional storytelling. Her work becomes the tool to make the voices of her people heard. She perfects this style with Femmes d'Alger (1980)
Other works: Her unfinished "Arabic Quartett": L’Amour, la fantasie (1985), Ombre Sultane (1987) & Vaste est la prison (1995). She later started analysing her own writing in her Essays in Ces voix qui m’assiùgent (1999), describing French as her butain de guerre à la Kateb Yacine
Other works: Her unfinished "Arabic Quartett": L’Amour, la fantasie (1985), Ombre Sultane (1987) & Vaste est la prison (1995). She later started analysing her own writing in her Essays in Ces voix qui m’assiùgent (1999), describing French as her butain de guerre à la Kateb Yacine
Other works: Her unfinished "Arabic Quartett": L’Amour, la fantasie (1985), Ombre Sultane (1987) & Vaste est la prison (1995). She later started analysing her own writing in her Essays in Ces voix qui m’assiùgent (1999), describing French as her butain de guerre à la Kateb Yacine
Other works: Her unfinished "Arabic Quartett": L’Amour, la fantasie (1985), Ombre Sultane (1987) & Vaste est la prison (1995). She later started analysing her own writing in her Essays in Ces voix qui m’assiùgent (1999), describing French as her butain de guerre à la Kateb Yacine
She is the very first North African to join the Académie Francaise in 2006 and continued her work in literature as well as teaching throughout the world including New York, always blurring the line and weaving the thread between fiction and true stories.
She died in 2015 at the age of 78 leaving a big legacy to her people. She was burried in her hometown Cherchell. In 2015 the Prix Assia Djebar du roman was started in her memory to highlight Algerien lit. in French, Tamazight &Arab
“Je suis fĂ©ministe parce que je suis AlgĂ©rienne”
If you made it this far... Hello hello and thank you!
Sooo the next two threads I'm planning on making will be about Femmes d'Alger (1980) and her two movies.
Stay tuned and safe out there!
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