In the Father’s House: Language and Violence in the Work of Assia Djebar and Leïla Sebbar

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33831/jws.v19i2.274

Keywords:

women’s writing, language, family, postcolonial writing, fathers and daughters, education

Abstract

This essay examines autobiographical writing by two women who grew up in colonial Algeria; it considers how the relationship between fathers and daughters is marked by linguistic conflict. For each of these writers, language is not a simple tool, but instead a problematic inheritance that shapes her world and her relationship with her father. Assia Djebar and Leila Sebbar, who were children in colonial Algeria of the late 1940s and early 1950s, examine their relationships to Arabic and French in terms of their relationships with their families and in particular with their schoolteacher fathers. The fathers, who benefitted from French colonial education, fail to understand the different risks inherent for their daughters in transgressing conservative community and linguistic boundaries. Each writer, even as she acknowledges the benefits of the colonizer’s language, also describes the language as a scene of violent trauma for which she holds her father responsible. With language and paternal love so tightly entwined, this essay argues that even in highly politicized colonial contexts, the national value of a language can only be understood if the familial and personal value of the language is also taken into account.

References

Barbour J. (2004). Judging or Not Judging Parents. In Eakin P.J. (Ed.), The Ethics of Life Writing. Ithaca: Cornell University Press: 73-98.
Bourget C. (2006). Language, Filiation and Affiliation in Leïla Sebbar's Autobiographical Narratives. Research in African Literatures, 37(4): 121-35.
Caruth C. (1997). Traumatic Awakenings. In, de Vries H. Ed. & Weber S. (Eds.), Violence, Identity, and Self-Determination. Stanford: Stanford University Press: 208-222.
Connell L. (2013). Movement, Education, and Empowerment in Assia Djebar’s L’Amour, la fantasia and Nulle part dans la maison de mon père. Contemporary Women’s Writing, 7(3): 291-308.
Djebar A. (1992). Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade (Trans: Blair D.S.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann (Original work published 1985).
Djebar A. (2007). Nulle part dans la maison de mon père. Paris: Fayard.
Djebar A. (2008). ‘Silence on Silk,’ or Writing in Flight (Trans: Abu-Haidar F.). L'Esprit Createur, 48(4): 129-32.
Donadey A. (2008). Introduction. L'Esprit Createur, 48 (4): 1-4.
Geyss R. (2008). Reflexions sur le rapport entre langue(s) et identité(s) dans la littérature féminine de langue française: le cas d'Assia Djebar et de Leila Sebbar. Annals of the University of Craiova. Series Philology. Linguistics (Analele Universităţii din Craiova. Seria Ştiinţe Filologice. Lingvistică) 12: 189-229.
Mortimer M. (1988). Language and Space in the Fiction of Assia Djebar and Leïla Sebbar. Research in African Literatures, 19(3): 301-11.
Poovey M. (1981). Fathers and Daughters: The Trauma of Growing Up Female. In Todd J. (Ed.), Men by Women. New York: Holmes & Meier: 39-58.
Rocca A. (2004). Père-fille: écriture et interdit dans l'autobiographie d'Assia Djebar. Tipaza. Retrieved from http://tipaza.Typepad.fr/mon_weblog/2012/06/p%C3%A8re-fille-%C3%A9criture-et-interdit-dans-lautobiographie-dassiadjebar.html.
Said E.W. (1983). The World, the Text and the Critic. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Schneider A. (1998). The Poisonous Gift: Language in Assia Djebar’s L’amour, la fantasia. Cincinnati Romance Review, 17: 129-136.
Sebbar L. (2000). Silence on the Shores (Trans: Mortimer M.). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press (Original work published 1993).
Sebbar L. (2003). Je ne parle pas la langue de mon père. Paris: Julliard.
Sebbar L. (2015). Arabic as a Secret Song (Trans: Artes S.). Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press (Original work published 2007).
Stora B. (1991). La gangrène et l'oubli. Paris: La Découverte.
Stora B. (2006). The Algerian War in French Memory: Vengeful Memory's Violence. In Makdisi U. & Silverstein P.A. (Eds.), Memory and Violence in the Middle East and North Africa. Bloomington: Indian University Press: 151-74.
Woodhull W. (1993). Transfigurations of the Maghreb: Feminism, Decolonization, and Literatures. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Downloads

Published

2017-10-10

How to Cite

Schneider, A. (2017). In the Father’s House: Language and Violence in the Work of Assia Djebar and Leïla Sebbar. Kadın/Woman 2000, Journal for Women’s Studies, 19(2), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.33831/jws.v19i2.274

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 2 (2018): Kadın/Woman 2000, Journal for Womens Studies

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

    1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, with the work [6 months] after publication simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
    2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
    3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access)