Remembering Assia Djebar

Writer, translator and filmmaker, Assia Djebar (30 June 1936 – 6 February 2015) is considered one of North Africa’s pre-eminent and most influential writers in French. Often named as a contender for the Nobel, she was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1996 and elected to the Academie Francaise in 2005. At once anti-patriarchal and anti-colonial, Djebar spoke eloquently of freedom and its obstacles as well as the complex machinery of identity.

The evening reflects on Djebar’s life, works and achievements, looks at her reception in Arabic and French, and ponders questions of language, translation of circulation of literary works, and also the interface between literature and cinema.

The event will be chaired by Wen-Chin Ouyang and include a panel of speakers, who will be announced shortly.

Wen-Chin Ouyang is Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature at SOAS, University of London. She was born in Taiwan and raised in Libya. She completed her BA in Arabic at Tripoli University and PhD Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University in New York City. She taught Arabic language, literature and culture at Columbia University, University of Chicago and University of Virginia before she moved to London. Ouyang is interested in critical theory and thought as well as poetics and prosaics. She has written extensively on classical and modern Arabic narrative and literary criticism.

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