Abstract:
Current debates on the status of feminine author crystallize tensions, and in particular the lively polemic on the use of the French feminine noun “auteure”. These questions about the status of women creators appear even stronger and virulent when they focus on women belonging to French-language literatures. Connections between the situation of women and French-speaking authors are numerous and they are found especially on the question of legitimacy. On a literary scene mostly dominated by writers (men, white and Western) writing in French for a foreign woman is a double challenge and entails a need for justification. For the present reflection, we will focus on the work of Assia Djebar, the first French-language writer to have joined the Académie française in 2005. Polymorph, her literary and filmic work tends to return incessantly, as a leitmotiv, on her authorship: thus she builds her own representation and “image de soi” (AMOSSY, 2010). The writer's ethos takes part in a very particular construction, which involve at the same time feminine identity and postcolonial literature.
Keywords:
Assia Djebar; postcolonial literature; feminine writing; commitment; voice