Writing the Personal: The Evolution of Assia Djebar’s Autobiographical Project from L’Amour, La Fantasia to Nulle Part Dans La Maison de Mon Père

Examining Djebar’s autobiographical project as a quest for truth—and an interrogation of “truth”—I chart the difficult process of self-disclosure in the three published texts of the Algerian Quartet: L’amour, la fantasia (1985) (Fantasia, An Algerian Cavalcade); Ombre sultane (1987) (A Sister to Scheherazade); Vaste est la prison (1995) (So Vast the Prison) then show that Nulle part dans la maison de mon père (2007) (No place in my father’s house), draws closer to the autobiographical pact. Probing the shift in Djebar’s autobiographical writing from a collective project to express community concerns to a singular voice, I argue that Nulle part dans la maison de mon père reformulates the writer’s trajectory as a circular movement, circling back to episodes of previous works, in the attempt to achieve a more truthful self