Algerian novelist Assia Djebar elected to Academie Francaise

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From the New York Times, 6/17/05

FRANCE: NORTH AFRICAN TO PROTECT FRENCH LANGUAGE The Algerian novelist and
filmmaker Assia Djebar was elected to fill the only vacancy at the
Academie Francaise, the august French institution that watches over the
French language. Ms. Djebar, 68, is the first North African to join the
40-member academy. Membership is for life. Ms. Djebar is one of North
Africa's most famous and influential writers. She beat the French writer
Dominique Fernandez in the hotly contested election for the seat left
vacant since 2002 by the death of Georges Vedel. Craig S. Smith (NYT)


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