Abstract: In Assia Djebar’s work, there is a metadiscourse on the activity of writing where one of the characters, who is engaged in the activity of writing, takes charge of the narrative and asks “why does one write?” The character projects the personas of several writers, crossing between fictionalized autobiography and novels. The article looks at both early works and more recent works, and highlights two of the recurring themes in Djebar’s works: the factors that propel one to write and writing as an exploration of memory.
