Leïla Sebbar

Helen Vassallo (University of Exeter)

Ed. by Lia Brozgal, University of California, Los Angeles
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 8.1.2: North African Writing and Culture: Francophone, Arabic, Spanish.
Vol. editors: Kate Averis (Universidad de Antioquia), Lia Brozgal (University of California, Los Angeles), Helen Rachel Cousins (Newman University), Ziad Elmarsafy (King's College London), Claire Gallien (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3), Siobhán McIlvanney (King's College London), Dalia Mostafa (University of Manchester), Nora Parr (SOAS, University of London), Rita Sakr (Maynooth University)

Dates

Born 9 Nov 1941

Places

Born in Algeria
Active in Algeria; France

Cultural Identities

North African/ Maghrebian French

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

Leïla Sebbar was born in Aflou, Algeria, in 1941. Her father, Mohammed Sebbar, a Francophile Algerian, had met her French mother Renée Bordas while he was studying in France, and brought her back to Algeria to make a life together. Mohammed Sebbar was the schoolmaster at a boys’ school, and Renée took care of the household, creating a “little France” in Algeria (Sebbar 2008, 69). The language spoken in the household was French: Sebbar’s mother did not speak Arabic, and her father, though he spoke Arabic in all other areas of his professional and personal life, spoke French at home. Sebbar grew up with no awareness that Arabic was her father’s mother tongue, and was brought up with a cultural awareness restricted to a French …

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3302 words

Citation: Vassallo, Helen. "Leïla Sebbar". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 August 2014 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13240, accessed 20 April 2024.]

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