- ʿAbdallāh al-ʿArwī (1933-, Morocco) – al-Ghurbah (‘Exile’, 1971) in which the author presents a picture of cultural fragmentation in post-independence Morocco. The novel portrays the nationalist Shuʿayb and his disillusion with the state of his country.
- Muḥammad Barrādah (1938-, Morocco) – Luʿbat al-Nisyān (1987, English trans. The Game of Forgetting, 1996) and Baʿīdan min al-Ḍiwḍāʾ. Qarīban min al-Sikāt (‘Far from clamor, close to silence’, 2014).
In Luʿbat al-Nisyān, members of a Moroccan family recount their lives in Fez, Morocco, under French rule and in the first years of its independence (reference). Each remembers differently, and ‘the game of forgetting and remembering’ refers to the tension on the personal and collective level that the characters go through as they are pulled both towards the need to ‘remember’ and retain history, and to ‘forget’ and move away from the past (reference). An example is the main character, Hādi, who is undergoing a mid-life crisis leading him to reflect on the deteriorating public sphere in Morocco as well as how his sexual relationship with women is shaped by his family relations, especially with his mother (reference).
Baʿīdan min al-Ḍiwḍāʾ. Qarīban min al-Sikāt takes place 50 years after the independence of Morocco. Its young protagonist collects the stories of four characters from different generations who represent the three eras of pre- and post-independence, and contemporary Morocco.
- ʿAbd al-Karīm Ghallāb (1919 – 2017, Morocco) – Dafannā al-Māḍī (1966, English trans. We Have Buried the Past, 2018). Portrays the conditions before the declaration of independence in Morocco, the growth of nationalist thinking, and the roles of secular and religious education within the Moroccan society in the lives of two generations of the al-Tihami family (reference). It reflects on the profound social changes that took place in this period through the disobedience of the three sons of the family patriarch (also in F: Family Life: Children and Adolescents: Bildungsroman and L: Languages and Dialects: Dialects: Moroccan Dialect).
- Abdellatīf Laâbi (1942- , Morocco) – Le fond de la jarre (2002, English trans. The Bottom of the Jar, 2013). This novel depicts a young boy growing up in Morocco in the 1950s painted by his struggle with the French colonial grip, family dramas, and the joys of childhood. The novel also critiques the nationalist movement which created a national myth that the sultan, who was exiled by the French for about two years, was seen on the moon. This collective hallucination was spun by nationalist leaders to gain momentum for the independence struggle (reference) (also in C: Children and Family Life: Children and Adolescents: Bildungsroman: Arabic Bildungsroman).
- Abdelhak Serhane (1950- , Morocco) – Les Enfants des rues étroits (‘The children of the narrow streets’, 1986). This novel is a portrayal of the friendship between two children, the narrator and his friend Rahou, growing up in the Moroccan town of Azrou (reference). The story of the two develops parallel to Morocco gaining independence, accompanied by an increase of unemployment, police repression, and corruption. The two are separated when the narrator’s family leaves Azrou. But he returns after some time to find Rahou has gone into exile in France and is left with observing how his town has changed – and stayed the same (also in F: Children and Family Life: Children and Adolescents).
- Aḥmad al-Tawfīq (1943-, Morocco) – Gharībah al-Ḥusayn (‘The stranger of al-Husayn’, 2000). This novel is set during the period of Morocco’s national struggle for independence from France, which it connects to a love story between a Moroccan man and a French woman (reference). The title of the novel refers to an Andalusian musical form called Nuwbah Gharībah al-Ḥusayn (also in L: Love, Lust, and Relationships: Inter-religious and ethnic (romantic) relationships: Between Arabs and Westerners).
- Laylā Abū Zayd (1950-, Morocco) – ʿĀm al-Fīl (1984, English trans. Year of the Elephant, 2011) and Rujūʾ ilā al-Ṭuflah (1993, English trans. Return to Childhood: The Memoir of a Modern Moroccan Women, 1998).
ʿĀm al-Fīl is a novella along with several short stories. Its main story, ʿĀm al-Fīl, is centred on Zaḥra, a peasant woman who divorces her husband (reference). In the process, it examines the existing attitudes towards divorced women, both socially and legally, while it interweaves her story with that of historical events, namely, the struggle for Moroccan independence. This novel was the first by a Moroccan woman written in Arabic to be translated to English.
Rujūʾ ilā al-Ṭuflah was one of the first modern autobiographies to be written in Arabic rather than in French by a Moroccan women, this autobiography interweaves Morocco’s struggle of national independence with the personal story of the author between her eight and fourteenth year (reference). Through giving voice not only to herself but also her mother and grandmother, the author offers a view of Moroccan history from women’s perspectives (reference) (also in A: Autobiography).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Jalīd Muḥammad. 2013. “Muḥammad Birrādah ‘Luʿbat al-Nisyān’ Tantashir bi-Faḍl al-Thānawiyāt.” www.alyaoum.com, 26 August 2013, https://alyaoum24.com/163937.html (last accessed 18 May 2023)
- Magda M. Al-Nowaihi. 1999. “Committed postmodernity: Mohamed Berrada’s the game of forgetting.” Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 8(15): 1-24, p. 2, 3, 11
- EAL, p. 247
- Anna Cavness. 2013. “Inscriptions of the Sovereign Body in Abdellatif Laâbi.” Research in African Literatures 44(1): 75-90, p. 76
- Hédi Bouraoui. 1986. “Abdelhak Serhane, ‘Les enfants der rues étroites’.” Horizons Maghrébins- Le droit à la mémoire 7-8: 105-107, p. 106
- Aida A. Bamia. 2003. “At-Taqfiq Ahmad.” in Encyclopaedia of African Literature. eds. Simon Gikandi, Routledge: New York, p. 48
- miriam cooke. 1992 “Arab Women writers” In Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muhammad Mustafa Badawi. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 443-463, p. 457
- Ariel M. Sheetrit. 2015 “Narrative Strategies of Self- Definition and Voice in Leila Abouzeid’s ‘Return to Childhood’.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 11(2): 179-198, p. 190, 191, 192