- ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAlūllah’s (1939 – 1994, Algeria) plays are typically in the Algerian dialect, as he believed dialect was the most appropriate language for theatre (reference). An example is his trilogy al-Aqwāl (‘The sayings’, 1980), al-Ajwād (‘The generous’, 1985), and al-Lithām (1989, English trans. The Veil, in Four plays from North Africa (2008)), which depicts the daily hardships of the working class and their fight for their rights during the economic, political, cultural, and social changes in Algerian society in the 1970s and 1980s. Its characters work in different industries, such as the driver Qudūr al-Sawāq and the factory and mine worker Ghashām (see also in S: Social Issues and Societal Change: Class and Social Change).
- Wāsīnī al-Arʿaj’s (1954-, Algeria) 1993 two-volume work Fājiʿat Al-Laylah al-Sābiʿah Baʿda al-Alf (‘The disaster of the thousand and seventh night’) and Raml al-Māyah (‘The sand of a hundred’) uses a similar frame story to One Thousand and One Nights and continues where this latter ended through the story of ‘al-Bashīr al-Mūriskū’, the basis of many side-stories. It uses both the Modern Standard Arabic, and the Algerian dialect (reference) (see for more information L: Cultural and Literary Heritage: Folktales: One Thousand and One Nights).
- Aḥmad Riḍā Ḥūḥū’s (1910 – 1956, Algeria) – Maʿa Ḥimār al-Ḥakīm (‘With al-Hakim’s donkey’, 1953), is a series of short story essays of the narrator’s dialogues with a donkey in which he shares his thoughts and theories about the world and complains about not being understood as an intellectual by his society (reference). The donkey, who has a simple understanding of life, answers with straightforward advice. The novel reflects on the conditions of Algeria at the time of narrating, conditions that the hero contemplates on changing. The text refers to Tawfīq al-Ḥakīm’s (1898 – 1987, Egypt) works that include donkeys, such as Ḥimār al-Ḥakīm (‘al-Hakim’s donkey’, ?) and Ḥimārī Qāl Lī (‘My donkey told me’, 1938) a collection of satirical philosophical essays.
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- ʿAbd al-Karīm Ḥamū. 2018. “Ishkāliyyah al-Lughah fī Aʿmāl ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAlūllah bayn al-Fuṣḥā wa al-Āmiyyah.” In Le Théâtre d’Abdelkader Alloula. Le Texte et la Scène by the Centre de Recherche en Anthopologie Sociale et Culturelle, pp. 89-98, p. 92
- Dr. Hanane Rabahi, Dr. Nadia Ghounane, and Prof. Ilhem Serir Mortad. 2018. “Language Diversity in Al Araj’s ‘The Disaster of the Seventh Night after the Thousand’”, in Global Journal of Human-Social Science (G) XVIII(V): 9-13, p. 11
- ʿAqīlah Bālī Maḥjūbī. 2006. “Qirāʾah Naqdīyyah li-Maqālah ‘al-Zawāj’ min Kitāb ‘Maʿ Ḥimār al-Ḥakīm’ li-Aḥmad Riḍā Ḥūḥū.” Majallat al-Ādāb wa al-ʿUlūm al-Ijtimāʿiyyah. 3(1): 194-207, p. 195