Algerian Radio
A conference on the unique journey and prolific work of Assia Djebar was hosted yesterday, Tuesday, in Algiers by professors and academics, on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the birth of this great woman of letters.
Organized by the National Enterprise of Communication, Publishing, and Advertising (ANEP), this commemorative meeting was led by Professor Wahid Ben Bouaziz from the University of Algiers 2; Amar Guendouzi, Professor of English and Postcolonial Literature Studies at Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi Ouzou; and Hakim Miloud, Professor at the University of Tlemcen and President of the Jury for the 8th edition of the Assia Djebar Grand Prize.
During this meeting entitled "Writing in Favor of Memory," the speakers retraced the paths of writing and criticism in Assia Djebar's work and their various stages, taking as a starting point her first novel, "La Soif" (The Thirst), which she wrote in the prime of her youth (at 20 years old) during the Liberation War.
After independence, Assia Djebar engaged in the work of rewriting national memory in order to deconstruct the colonial narrative about Algeria and Algerians, through major works like "L'Amour, la fantasia" (Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade), in which she highlights the crimes perpetrated in the Dahra mountains during colonization.
For the lecturers, Assia Djebar based this necessity to propose another historical corpus on "the referent of memory" and remembrance, for their "intimate, individual, and personal" aspects. In doing so, she disregarded the history written and transmitted by the colonizer, as it was steeped in lies and untruths.
The novelist also published "La Femme sans sépulture" (The Woman Without a Sepulcher), a novel dedicated to the struggle of the martyr Zoulikha Oudaï, who was "arrested and atrociously tortured, before being thrown from a helicopter."
The speakers also mentioned other writings by Assia Djebar: "Le Blanc de l'Algérie" (Algerian White), "Loin de Médine" (Far from Medina), "Les Nuits de Strasbourg" (The Nights of Strasbourg—or the search for coexistence between the "I" and the "other"), "Femmes algériennes dans leurs appartements" (Women of Algiers in Their Apartment), as well as "Nulle part dans la maison de mon père" (Nowhere in My Father's House), an autobiographical account in which she looks back on her childhood in Cherchell, her journey, and the special relationship she had with her father.
The university professors then discussed the various cultural and intellectual fields in which Assia Djebar evolved, ranging, beyond literature, from history to sociology, literary criticism, anthropology, theater, and cinema.
Thus, the literary criticism that accompanied this writer's rich career was recalled by the speakers, who were unanimous in considering that Assia Djebar remains a "major and emblematic figure of Algerian Letters" and that her work, "praised for its polyphony," deserves to be celebrated "for having restored national memory through a profoundly Algerian gaze."
The conference was then opened to a debate with the audience, allowing the members of the Jury for the 8th edition of the 2026 Assia Djebar Grand Prize for the Novel, who were present at this meeting, to intervene and reflect on another facet of the writer's journey, notably in theater and cinema.
Besides its president, Hakim Miloud, the jury for the 8th Assia Djebar Grand Prize is composed of the following members: sociologist Mustapha Madi, popular literature specialist Hamid Bouhabib, writer Maïssa Bey, President of the Algerian Academy of the Arabic Language (AALA) Cherif Meribai, writer Meriem Guemache, novelist Leïla Hamoutène, poet Ahcene Mariche, Amazigh language researcher Koussaïla Alik, and poet and translator Idir Belali.
Organized since 2015 in tribute to the famous Algerian novelist Assia Djebar (1936-2015), this Grand Prize rewards the best fictional work written in Arabic, Amazigh, and French.
