Assia Djebar

Overview

Assia Djebar (née Fatima-Zohra Imalayen) born Cherchell, Algeria June 30, 1936 (d. 2015). Algerian novelist and filmmaker; portrayed terrible violence of Algerian War for independence with the nonviolent alternative proposed by Camus. Received Neustadt International Prize for Literature in recognition of her body of work, 1996; awarded Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, 2000.

Quotations

“[T]his geology stained red with blood. What magma of sounds lies rotting there? What stench of petrifaction seeps out? I grope about, my sense of smell aroused, my ears alert, in this rising tide of ancient pain. Alone, stripped bare, unveiled, I face these images of darkness. . . How are the sounds of the past to be met as they emerge from the well of bygone centuries? . . . What love must still be sought, what future be planned, despite the call of the dead?” (1985, in Ben Salem, “I shall Intervene,” 2011)