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On the sidelines of the 28th Algiers International Book Fair (SILA), hosted at the Palais des Exhibitions des Pins Maritimes, the emotion was palpable on Friday at the Barzakh Editions stand. An exceptional meeting brought together a large audience who came to discover, with wonder, The Beauty of Joseph, an unpublished story by Assia Djebar, which had remained confidential for a long time, but has now been published by the house.
Hosted with precision and great mastery by Selma Hellal, co-founder of Barzakh, the conference brought Jalila Imalhayene-Djennane, daughter and attentive guardian of the Djebarian heritage, into dialogue for a moment of extremely rare intelligence where literature, homage and transmission were expressed, in unison.
Long kept in the shadows of the shelves of Actes Sud, The Beauty of Joseph was almost a well-kept secret, and has been since 1998. “The edition of this novel is part of a vast work of republishing the work of Assia Djebar. To celebrate its twentieth anniversary, Actes Sud wanted to bring together some of its major voices in an anniversary box set. With Jalila’s agreement, we were able to bring this text back to light,” Selma Hellal immediately emphasized, determined to give the novel the brilliance it deserves. “For this is a singular story, where erudition meets the greatest freedom of writing, summoning biblical, Koranic and mystical sources around one of the most fascinating episodes of the monotheistic tradition, that of the story of Joseph [Youssef] and Zouleïkha,” added Jalila Imalhayene-Djennane.
“If Surah XII of the Koran, often described as the most beautiful of stories, profusely irrigates the imagination of Muslims, Assia Djebar leaves her own mark on it, a keen look at desire, forgiveness, the power of women,” she noted. And to specify: “Where women are confined to fragility, Assia Djebar claims their inalienable power.”
“It is a literary exegesis which has lost none of its vigor. This text is still relevant today, it questions our society, politically, culturally, humanly… It does not age, it does not age,” she continued.
Furthermore, she returned to the deep link that her mother established between the story of Joseph and the fratricidal war of the Black Decade – which she herself called “the Joseph years”, according to her daughter. As for Zouleïkha, a character often wrongly judged, Djebar “gives him back his crown”, Jalila Imalhayene-Djennane also wanted to explain.
From this reissue also arises a renewed intellectual impetus. Two contributions resonate with the story, one offering an analysis inspired by the Franco-Iranian academic Leili Anvar, a specialist in Persian literature, and the other a contemporary variation by Hajar Bali, an Algerian writer and playwright with a renowned pen. “Reading this text gripped me with its radical subjectivity and sensuality from start to finish,” confided Salema Hellal, saluting both the “absolutely incredible” analytical depth and the ardent freedom of Djebar.
In front of the large and captivated audience, Jalila Imalhayene-Djennane shared, with humility, a word that was both lucid and moving about the responsibility that now weighs on her shoulders: “I am here to keep Assia Djebar’s voice alive and shine, to be as close as possible to her demands, without ever betraying her. This is a great anxiety for me! I can’t afford to betray her. It’s terrible to make the dead speak… Everything is there, everything is written, it’s just a matter of relaying the words of a person who is no more, but who lets his voice travel through time. A commitment that was imposed on her at the very moment of her mother’s funeral, she asserted in a peremptory tone.
This conference was established as a true act of filiation, a vibrant tribute to an author who continues to nourish Algerian and universal literature, while constituting a clear invitation to new generations of writers in the country, “already numerous to reappropriate the thought of Djebar”, recalled Jalila.
As soon as it was published in Sila, The Beauty of Joseph had a nice surprise in store for many readers, visibly moved to rediscover the legacy of Assia Djebar, through this text, which Selma Hellal considers essential.