Academic literature on the topic 'Assia Djebar'

Silence in the universe of women in the Maghreb is a common topic in theFrancophone literature. The main topic in Assia Djebar’s writings in what hasbeen called the second period of her literary production (1980–1990) is resurrecting the silent voices of women in history. By breaking the silence imposed on women and giving them a voice and a memory, Assia Djebar unveils the silences of the Algerian history (past and contemporary). We intend to examine in this paper the silences unveiled by Assia Djebar in her novels of this period – Femmes d’Alger dans leur appartement, L’amour, la fantasia, Ombre sultane and Loin de Médine – in order to show how Assia Djebar (re)builds another critical view of history and restores the hidden voices of women and places for them in history, thus bringing into question the relationship between fiction and history, women and history. To this end, we will rely on theories of postmodern historiography and on the Derridean concept of phenomenological voice identified as a “third space” in which the woman exists as a subject.

Parler du corps féminin dans l'œuvre de Assia Djebar, tout en dépassant le clivage chair/âme ou corps/personnalité, signifie l'inscrire dans une vision unitaire, dans une durée et un espace élargis et totalisants. Ce corps est constamment en relation avec le milieu qui l'influence, ce qui conduit à un éclatement de son unité. Nous avons voulu insister sur sa continuité, sa résistance et même la survie de l'identité, malgré les facteurs ou les contextes qui l'ont mis à mal. Avant de conférer l'unité perdue au corps féminin, nous avons essayé de définir les termes clé de corps et de personnalité grâce aux sciences humaines, tout en tenant compte de leur spécificité liée à l'identité arabo-musulmane, aux particularités berbères et à l'influence française. Ce point de départ multiple nous a permis de ne pas tomber dans les catégorisations classiques, strictement sociales, de la femme algérienne. En voulant mettre en lumière l'unité fondamentale de cet être féminin, nous nous sommes intéressée tout d'abord à son aspect physique, le premier qui s'offre à notre vue et qui nous permet une description. Mais celui-ci dépasse les apparences car, prise en charge par le langage et l'imaginaire, il conduit à la manifestation de la dimension réflexive. Le personnage féminin djebarien passe du stade «avoir un corps» à celui d'«être un corps» doté de plusieurs dimensions, physique, psychique, intellectuelle, langagière et imaginaire (I). Mais cette image corporelle unie et heureuse est confrontée à des époques moins favorables qui sont apparues à cause de l'éloignement de la doctrine islamique initiale, telle qu'elle est présentée dans Loin de Médine, de la valorisation de certains concepts comme l'honneur, la pudeur, la honte. Confronté à l'autorité masculine qui s'exerce sur la femme algérienne dans tous les moments de la vie, et qui se traduit par l'enfermement, l'humiliation, l'assignation à certains rôles très bien définis (comme celui de mère et d'épouse), les ordres, les coups, les insultes, etc., ce corps féminin développe une «micropsychologie» (M. Maffesoli) qui se transmet de génération en génération et qui offre des réponses toutes faites à des situations diverses. Tous les gestes en sont imprégnés, mais cela n'empêche pas le réveil et le surgissement des traces cachées de la personnalité féminine dans des contextes très particuliers. Ces traces mettront en lumière la ruse, le défi et même la haine de la femme lancés à l'homme, désigné déjà dans l'imaginaire féminin algérien par le terme de «e'dou» (ennemi). Ces sentiments révèlent donc la résistance du corps féminin, faite à la fois d'une révolte muette, de cris ravalés, de murmures, d'une écoute attentive, d'un besoin de partager et de se soutenir (II). Nous avons donc devant nos yeux un corps morcelé, qui a oublié ses qualités à cause de l'intériorisation des prisons symboliques. Mais grâce à la solidarité féminine, à la valorisation de la maison vue comme espace cocon et des relations entre femmes, au retour à la langue première, les traces de liberté et de plénitude du passé éloigné sont réactualisées par les gestes et les paroles de certaines femmes libres. Celles-ci ouvrent la voie de la libération du corps féminin algérien qui réapprendra à regarder, à marcher dehors, à raconter ses souvenirs, à parler de lui et à apprécier la présence de l'homme aimé (III). L'analyse des parties corporelles visibles, de la posture féminine, des gestes dans lesquels la tradition s'est inscrite, des réactions qui dévoilent à la fois la dimension corporelle et psychique, des termes utilisés par Djebar pour parler de ses personnages féminins, nous a permis de dévoiler un corps féminin doté d'un cœur, de souvenirs, de sentiments, une personnalité et des rôles qui sortent du cadre imposé par la société. Ce corps féminin, capable de faire des gestes qui l'inscrivent dans la durée et dans l'espace reconquis, acquiert une parole performative qui le recrée et lui donne la possibilité de s'accomplir
As suggested in the works of Assia Djebar about the body of the woman excluding the cleavage of the flesh and soul and of the body and personality means a vision of a united body encompasses a broad duration and space. This body is constantly connected to the environment that influences it. This has broken its unity up. The thesis puts the emphasis on its continuity, resistance and even the survival of its identity, despite the factors or contexts that have harmed it. Before giving back to the female body its lost unity, we identified the key terms of body and personality through the humanities, while taking into account the specifics of these terms related to the Arab-Muslim identity, to the Berber characteristics and to the French influence. With this starting point, we do not fall into the conventional and strictly social categorizations of the Algerian woman. In order to highlight the fundamental unity of the feminine being, we started with its physical dimension. This is the first aspect that we view and that we can describe. But it goes beyond the appearances since, supported by the language and the imagination, it drives a reflexive dimension. The Djebarien female character transitions from the stage "have a body" to the stage of "being a body" with several dimensions: physical, psychological, intellectual, linguistic and imaginary (I). But that image of unity and harmony is faced with less favorable pictures that appeared because Islam moved away from its original doctrine as presented in the book “Far from Medina”, and the valuation of certain concepts such as honor, modesty and shame. Faced with the male authority that is exercised on the Algerian female body in every moment of life, and which results in confinement, humiliation, arrest to some very well-defined roles (such as mother and wife), orders, beatings, insults, etc.., the female body develops a “micro psychology” (M. Maffesoli) that is transmitted from generation to generation and provides built-in answers to various situations. All actions are impregnated with these, but that doesn't stop preventing the emergence of hidden traces of the female personality in very specific contexts. These traces highlight the cunning, the challenge and even the hatred of women to men, designated in the Algerian female imaginary by the term "e'dou" (enemy). These feelings reveal the strength of the female body made of a silent revolt expressed or debased by shouts, murmurs, attentive listening, a need to share and support each other.(II) So we have in front of our eyes a fragmented body, which has forgotten its qualities due to the internalization of these symbolic prisons. But thanks to the female solidarity, the appreciation of the house as a place to cocoon, the relationships between women, and the return to the first language, the traces of the distant past are renewed by the actions and words of some free women. These pave the way for the release of the Algerian female body that will learn again to watch, to walk outside, to reminisce, to talk about itself and to appreciate the presence of the beloved man. (III) The analysis of body parts visible in our corpus, the feminine posture, the gestures in which the tradition is recorded, the reactions that reveal both the physical and psychic dimension, the terms used by Djebar to talk about his feminine characters, allowed us to reveal a female body with a heart, memories, feelings, personalities and roles that are outside the framework imposed by the society. The female body able to make gestures, which falls within the time and space reclaimed, acquires a performative speech which, in turn, recreates and provides it with the opportunity to perform, while maintaining contact with the origins and the "living word". So we see a body and an identity shifting, constantly trying to form and to write

L'écriture d'Assia Djebar est née du métissage des deux cultures algérienne et française. Forcée de revêtir une identité multiculturelle imposée par la violence de l'Histoire, cet écrivain francophone de renommée internationale a forgé une oeuvre en langue française, langue reconnue et explorée peu à peu dans un choix conscient. Contrainte à l'exil en raison des problèmes théologico - politiques qui secouent l'Algérie, Assia Djebar place au coeur de ses thèmes et de son écriture narrative les différents aspects d'une quête de soi, soulignant le rôle constructeur de l'écriture dans la recherche de cette identité. La parole des femmes et la mémoire féminine occupent une place essentielle dans son oeuvre. Assia Djebar s'efforce de recueillir inlassablement les paroles des femmes, leurs luttes tenaces pour la conservation de la vie et de modeler la langue française pour inscrire en elle tant au niveau des structures des récits, de l'interaction entre passé et présent, entre l'ici algérien et l'ailleurs français, entre le récit historique et le monologue intérieur ou les bribes autobiographiques, l'identité plurielle qui s'esquisse au fil des romans à la fois comme vécu historique et expériences de vies. L'identité plurielle algérienne pourrait constituer le creuset de son unité nationale, à condition de tolérer la différence comme modalité de l'enrichissement de sa culture et de se l'approprier. Assia Djebar inscrit son travail littéraire dans cette perspective inaugurale. Son oeuvre romanesque constitue dans le paysage littéraire francophone une réponse originale à tout réductionnisme identitaire
The writing of Assia Djebar has arised from the interbreeding of the two cultures Algerian and French. Forced to cover a multicultural identity imposed by the violence of the History, this French-Speaking writer of international fame forged a work in French language, language recognized and explored little by little in a conscious choice. Forced to exile because of the theological and political problems with shake Algeria, Assia Djebar places in the heart of her topics and her narrative writing the various aspects of a search of oneself, underlining the manufacturer role of the writing in the search for this identity. The word of the women and the female memory occupy an essential place in her works. Assia Djebar endeavours tirelessly to collect the women's words, their though fights for the conservation of life and to model the French language to register in it so much about the level of the story's structures, the interaction between past and present, here Algerian and elsewhere French, between historical story and the stream of consciousness or the autobiographical snatches, the plural identity which is outlined with the thread of the novels at the same time as lived historical and experiment of life

The work of Assia Djebar, the most celebrated contemporary female novelist to emerge from North Africa, has been labelled "feminist" since the publication of her watershed collection of short stories, Femmes d'Alger dans leur appartement (1980), which marked her entry onto the international stage. Since then, whether rewriting the blooding history of colonialism, revisiting the thorny history of early Islam, or opening up the cloistered world of Algerian society, Djebar has placed woman at the centre of her enterprise. But what type of feminism does Djebar espouse? This thesis examines four works of Assia Djebar in relation to selected French and Arab feminist theorists, with the intention of analysing what Djebar refers to as her "own kind of feminism". It argues that Djebar's own feminism is in dialogue with a variety of feminisms, from the philosophical constructs of the French feminists, and the newly chartered area of Arab feminist historical scholarship, to the perspectives of mainstream feminist historical scholarship and the controversial works of Christian feminists. This dialogue provides a basis for confronting some of the wide-ranging questions raised by her work. How do French feminists' concerns with woman's relation to language, writing, and sexuality express themselves within Djebar's novels? How can the maternal world by affirmed in the context of a repressive Islamic patriarchal society? Can Djebar reclaim a patriarchal religion such as Islam for women? And can Algerian history be appropriated by and for women? The feminist readings of the four novels examined, which pay particular attention to the approaches of Julia Kristeva, Hélena Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Leila Ahmed expose the type of linguistic and political strategies which Dejbar employs in her affirmation of women's autonomy and in her challenge to patriarchal norms, as she rejects the preordinated positions which history, society and religion have allotted to Algerian womanhood.

Texte remanié de: Dissertation--Universität Düsseldorf, 2005. Titre de soutenance : Postkoloniale Geschichtsbilder bei Assia Djebar : zwischen Dekonstruktion und Montage, Archäologie und Archiv.
Bibliogr. p. 357-389.

The absence of a public dialogue, either about or between Assia Djebar and Hélène Cixous is mystifying, because they move in academic/literary/intellectual/biographical circles that overlap. Reading for the textual dialogue between Cixous's and Djebar's writing reveals the development of a narrative and writing position, referred to here as the 'border- subject', the roots of which stem from the authors' biographies. Reading Djebar's and Cixous's oeuvre, against the background of Franchise Lionnet's and Gloria Anzaldua's theoretical landscape, simultaneously enlarges the critical optic as well as the scope of each individual writer's oeuvre. What characterises the fictional border subject in Les Impatients and Dedans is a willingness to transgress boundaries. The fictional border subject negotiates with three different spatial dynamics: the separation from the other, spatial metaphors, and history's invasion of domestic space. In the subsequent 'Le Rire de la méduse' and Femmes d'Alger dans leur appartement, Djebar and Cixous write as border subjects in order to craft liberating strategies intended to redress the mis-representation or absence of women's body. As a consequence of the preceding texts, L'Amour, la fantasia and Les Rêveries de la femme sauvage contain the authors' semi-autobiographical questioning of the border subject in relation to origin, language, belonging and home: this enables a re-animation of the Algerian past, both individual and collective. Lastly, in Le Blanc de I'Algérie and Le Jour où je n'étais pas là the border subject is put aside: although absent, the narrating 'je' remains connected with events and bears witness. This dimension of testimony represents an exciting development in the authors' oeuvre and their political commitment. What emerges from a comparative reading is the authors' transformation of the border subject into an engagement with the Algerian present. Solidarity amongst Algerian born writers can transform literature into an indestructible repository for the dream of a multi- lingual, multi-cultural Algeria.

La présente étude se penche sur l’œuvre autobiographique de l’auteur algérien Assia Djebar : nous analysons les trois textes parus du Quatuor Algérien : L’amour, la fantasia, Ombre sultane, et Vaste est la prison en les considérant comme models d’une écriture autobiographique postcoloniale. En partant de la thèse selon laquelle les concepts européens ne sont qu’en partie aptes à définir l’écriture autobiographique d’un auteur issu d’un contexte transculturel, la partie théorique propose une nouvelle approche permettant une telle définition. Ainsi l’analyse narratologique des textes (thèmes, voix et mode) met en valeur le statut hybride du Quatuor Algérien dans une perspective double : d’abord l’identité du « je » autobiographique est présentée comme identité de transition entre les cultures ; ensuite l’hybridité est considérée comme caractéristique textuelle dans la mesure où Djebar enchevêtre les traditions d’écritures autobiographiques issues de différents espaces culturels
This study explores the autobiographical work of Assia Djebar. It analyzes the three already published texts of the Algerian Quartett: L’amour, la fantasia, Ombre sultane and Vaste est la prison. These texts are considered to be typical postcolonial autobiographies. The classical concepts used to classify European autobiographies do not fully suffice to interpret the autobiographical texts of an author originating from transcultural space. This work thus proposes a new approach to define postcolonial autobiographic writing. The narratological analysis of the texts (themes, voice and mode) reveals the hybrid character of the Algerian Quartet in two respects. First, it finds the identity of the autobiographical “I” to be an identity of transition among cultures. Second, it treats hybridity as a textual characteristic in the sense that Djebar interweaves the autobiographical writing traditions of different cultural spaces