Approaches to Teaching the Works of Assia Djebar

Anne Donadey

Jun 2017 · Modern Language Association

About this ebook

A significant and prolific francophone writer and filmmaker, Assia Djebar is celebrated for her experimental, multilingual prose and her nuanced, imaginative representations of Algeria. From her first novel, La soif (The Mischief), to her final book, Nulle part dans la maison de mon père ("No Place in My Father's House"), she offers a wealth of pedagogical and theoretical possibilities.

Part 1, "Materials," presents valuable teaching resources, including biographical information, French- and English-language editions of Djebar's writing, and secondary works. In part 2, "Approaches," contributors address the issues of and controversy surrounding her oeuvre, drawing on a range of interdisciplinary approaches and classroom strategies. Topics in the volume include translation studies, Islamic feminism, colonial and postcolonial contexts, autobiographical writing, historiography, postmodern and avant-garde literary experimentation, and visual culture. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak provides an afterword. This volume makes clear the political, intellectual, and artistic importance of Djebar.

About the author

Anne Donadey is professor of French and francophone studies and of women's studies at San Diego State University. She is the author of Recasting Postcolonialism: Women Writing between Worlds, coeditor of Postcolonial Theory and Francophone Literary Studies, and coeditor of the second edition of Women in Culture: An Intersectional Anthology for Gender and Women's Studies.