Francophone Literature in the Maghreb the Problem and the Possibility

Francophone Literature in the Maghreb: The Problem and the PossibilityAuthor(s): Jean Déjeux and Ruthmarie H. MitschSource: Research in African Literatures, Vol. 23, No. 2, North African Literature (Summer,1992), pp. 5-19Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3820390 .

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a IPossibility Jean Dejeux

Francophone "Maghrebian" literature is neither indigenous nor national, and for this reason it poses a serious problem for Arabic-language critics as well as foreign observers. Since the 1950s when francophone literature was first written by Maghrebians (as Maghrebians and not as French), many terms have been coined to define it: "litterature d'expression fran~aise" and "litterature de langue fran(aise" are the most commonly used ones. Although some critics find these terms cumbersome, nothing better has yet been sug- gested. Kacem Basfao has talked about "litterature marocaine de langue vehi- culaire fran(aise"; Ahmed Lanasri has discussed "litterature algerienne d'expression arabe mais de langue fran§aise; and the late Jean Senac has pro- posed "litterature d'ecriture francaise" or "litterature de graphie francaise"; but none of these terms has met with much success. If Andre Miquel's term "litterature arabe ecrite en fran(ais" accurately reflects a part of the situation, it mis- represents the works of Berber authors who know Arabic but continue to write in French.

Actually, such titles are unimportant. What concerns us is a body of works that have been written by Algerians, Moroccans, and Tunisians. It is of course difficult to know whether or not to include writers such as Senac, a "pied noir" who was bor in the Maghreb, lived there for many years, and worked tirelessly for the cause of independence. And what about Leila Sebbar, who has Franco-Algerian parents and currently lives in France, or "Beur" writers who live in France and inhabit a mixed Franco-Maghrebian literary space?

In one sense, it is appropriate to speak of Maghrebian "literatures" because Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia all experienced independence in their own way and identified with specific qualities that their citizens regarded as



6 I Research in African Literatures

characteristic or unique. Despite official pronouncements about the unity of the "Grand Maghreb Arabe," therefore, it is legitimate to speak of an Algerian literature in French, a Moroccan literature in French, and a Tunisian literature in French.

The existence of such literatures belies the fact that each of these countries has proclaimed Arabic as its national language and regards itself as Arabo- Islamic in culture, although speakers of Berber dialects, especially in Algeria, continue to fight for the recognition of their language and culture. Arab- language literatures in all three countries have experienced a renaissance since political independence was achieved in the late 1950s and early 1960s. How- ever, this literature is not well known outside North Africa. Approximately 250 Maghrebian novels have been published in Arabic, but as of 1989, only nineteen of them had been translated into French, and even this figure is some- what of an exaggeration because three of these translations are collections of short stories. The point is that francophone literatures represent neither the total nor the essential of literary production in the Maghreb, although if the literary Maghreb is known to the rest of the world, it tends to be known through works written in French.

Let us take a closer look at this literary production. The first novel written in French by an Algerian dates back to 1920. Ten novels and collections of short stories and tales were published in Algeria during the years 1920-1944, but it was not until the 1950s that Maghrebian writers achieved significant recognition for their work, many of them having been discovered by the Seuil publishing house, which introduced a "Mediterranean" series under the direction of Emmanuel Robles. The total production of francophone literary works during the period 1945-1989 can be seen at a glance in the following chart:

Novels and Short Poetry Plays TOTAL Story Collections Volumes

Algeria 305 383 52 740 Morocco 75 121 10 206 Tunisia 58 136 6 200 MAGHREB 438 640 68 1146

If novels are more numerous in French than in Arabic throughout the Maghreb, short-story collections are more numerous in Arabic, reflecting the Arabicization of instruction at the primary, secondary, and university levels. However, the authors of many of these publications are completely unknown to the public at large because their works were privately printed and received little or no critical attention. Furthermore, numbers themselves can tell us little about the aesthetic value of these works.

The problems that initially confronted these literatures still exist. In fact, the increase in francophone literary production since independence and particularly in recent years is paradoxical because every country in the Maghreb considers itself Arabic and consciously fosters the development of an



Jean Dejeux 1 7

Arabic-language literature. The awarding of prestigious literary prizes to fran-

cophone Maghrebian authors has legitimized the practice of writing in French, although lesser known francophone Maghrebian writers face enormous problems when they seek to publish and sell their works in their own countries, particularly in Algeria. As for the future of this literature, it must be regarded as problematic.

When Albert Memmi's Anthologie des Ecrivains maghrebins d'expression franSaise appeared in 1964, it triggered a polemic that continued to rage throughout the following year. Why were the French writers of North Africa (i.e., the "pieds noirs") not included along with representatives of the region's Arabo-Berber societies? Memmi responded that the works of Maghrebian authors were distinctive in the sense that they gave voice to communities that had experienced the colonial situation from the perspective of the colonized. According to him, such works heralded the genesis and the constitution of these communities into nations, whereas the works of European writers did not generally participate in this movement, although some of them, such as those of Senac, obviously did (Letter). Those who collaborated on the publication of the Anthologie thus viewed their enterprise as part of a combat for the liberation of the Maghreb from foreign occupation-a combat for the creation of indepen- dent nations.

The Maghrebian writers who had begun to publish in the early 1950s were asking questions about their own identity: Who am I? Who are we? One result of this self-questioning was a reaction against the presence of non-Ma- ghrebians in the region. In fact, the emergence of a novelistic "I" in their works was implicitly that of an "I-We" addressing itself to a foreign "You" (See Char- penter). Senac argued that an Algerian writer is one "who had definitively opted for the Algerian nation" (20). Henri Krea (the pseudonym of Cachin, the grandson of Marcel Cachin and the child of a Franco-Algerian marriage) declared that the term "Algerian writer" signifies "in the absolute that one has chosen the Algerian motherland no matter what one's racial origin or religious or philosophical adherence might be" (Marissel). Malek Haddad had remarked earlier that "the indelible mark of Islam distinguishes us, but it must not sepa- rate us" (33). In the same 1961 essay, he affirmed, "We write French, but we do not write in French." He meant, of course, that "we do not write as French- men." These writers were defining themselves in opposition to colonialism- the enemy that had provoked them into a sense of national solidarity and national identification. At the same time, their words reveal an awareness of the cultural and religious dimensions of the struggle. The situation is different today. Thirty years after independence, there are more and more francophone Maghrebian authors who have never experienced direct colonial rule. If they live in the Maghreb, they are less subject to the complexes and identity problems associated with the colonized; however, those who emigrated from the Maghreb to France continue to live with these identity problems in a very complex manner.




Do today's authors feel that they are taking part in the emergence of a national literature? Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia are constitutionally sepa- rate, and national writers unions have been organized in each of them. But such associations do not bring together all the writers from these countries, especially in light of the fact that they are dominated by Arabic-language writers. Obviously, a writer's nationality cannot be determined by his or her member- ship in one of these unions.

In all these countries, literary expression occurs in both Arabic and French, which often serves as a privileged second language or as a working language. In discussing nations emancipated from French and British colonialism, Tibor Klaniczay described this situation aptly when he wrote: "The identity revealed by language is, purely and simply, insufficient to include these literary creations in the national literature of the English or the French" (187-88). The emergence of a national literature can be observed, according to him, in cre- ative works that have been composed in different languages. Whether written in French or in Arabic, Maghrebian novels deal with the same national reali- ties. Furthermore, although Berber is not recognized as a national language in Algeria or Morocco, at least three Kabyle novels have been written in Berber. Are these novels part of a national literature?

Although the official representatives of the writers unions continually affirm the existence of national literatures, their positions are ambiguous with regard to francophone writing. In Tunisia, they talk only about works in Arabic and remain silent about French-language works by Tunisian writers. In Algeria and Morocco, the renown of some francophone authors is so great that they cannot be ignored. In such cases, Arabic-language critics often dismiss francophone literature as "inauthentic."

During the poetry festival of Mohammed Laid Al Khalifa in 1982 at Biskra, for example, Abdallah Hamadi frivolously maintained that, "despite its genius," Kateb Yacine's Nedjma "isn't an Algerian work" and that Rachid Boudjedra isn't "an authentically Algerian writer," even though he has written in Arabic since 1982. Hamadi concludes by arguing that Algerians who write in French are not "representative of the national literature" (See Djaout). Some critics at the Biskra colloquium refused to include francophone works as part of "The Algerian School of Literature," whereas others accepted them. In gen- eral, however, the most enlightened Arabic-language writers recognize that francophone writers are creating works that must be taken into consideration when discussing the national patrimony. In any case, Maghrebian writers who receive prestigious foreign prizes are usually accepted into the national pantheon.

Do francophone Maghrebian writers consciously contribute to a "national" literary tradition? Some of the most important of them live abroad, although many continue to live in the Maghreb. Among those living abroad, many have dissociated themselves from the struggle to shape a new national identity. They often affect disinterest toward the internal vicissitudes of the



Jean Dejeux I 9

Maghreb and seem content to have left them behind. Although they appear to be working only for themselves, their attitudes span a broad spectrum of opin- ion in this debate. When Algerian novelists born in France opt for French citizenship, they obviously intend to pursue a career in France. To what tradition does their fiction belong? In addition to the expatriate Maghrebian community, numerous internal exiles feel ill at ease in their own countries, especially after the rise of fundamentalism throughout North Africa. Despite official denials of censorship, those who were subjected to the FLN's cultural policies in Algeria often felt as if they had been deprived of their "voice."

This issue is also problematic with regard to the reception of literary works. As the Algerian Ali Akika explains, "The public rarely adopts a work in the sense that it becomes a social product, the possession of an entire society" ("Vers une structure"). Should we say "the whole nation"? This problem is com- pounded by the nature of public readings and by the way in which literary works are diffused in the Maghreb. Large audiences come under the influence of tele- vision images, and orality remains a dominant mode of discourse. Illiteracy continues to be widespread. How can a work be "national" when it only attracts the interest of academics and a few literary-minded members of the elite? Five or six Moroccan writers, three or four from Tunisia, and about fifteen from Alge- ria can be regarded as relatively well known. They are discussed at university colloquia and analyzed in scholarly publications, but are they read by the gen- eral public? Are their works perceived as socially relevant in the Maghreb? What is their role in society? Do their works have any impact on the national consciousness aside from the momentary praise of people who vicariously iden- tify with the literary prizes they win? There has been no serious research in this domain, but it is clear that their use of French and their dependency on "research" increasingly distance them from the Maghrebian populace. Are such authors writing primarily for foreign readers and for foreign universities where francophonic works have become a standard part of the curriculum?

For some, this question has been answered; for others, it remains an intensely personal concern: how does one write in the language of the ex- colonizer, yesterday's oppressor? "We're a problem," remarked Haddad, who felt guilty because he did not know Arabic. This sort of complex has largely dis- appeared. Some Maghrebian authors write in both Arabic and French; others know Arabic but prefer to write in French. As Tahar Ben Jelloun has observed, "Maghrebian novelists are now using the French language without thinking of themselves as 'guilty' " ("L'Exploration").

"The writer is a solitary person whose territory is the wound," he said on another occasion, "the one borne by the dispossessed" (Interview 58). The ini- tial wound is the separation from one's spoken mother tongue, but this wound quickly scars over and can become an advantage to the writer. An oral mother tongue structures the individual's personality and defines the subjective, the intimate. Furthermore, the use of French allows writers to transgress boundaries they might encounter in Arabic. For example, Ben Jelloun admitted that he




could not have written L'Enfant de sable in Arabic because the material in the novel is on the order of a heresy against the Koran, religion, and his parents. Only by taking recourse to another language-a form of "otheress"-could he overcome the constraints of the parental superego, especially its feminine (materal) component.

The Moroccan critic Basfao has analyzed this question and concluded that the use of French under such circumstances allows one "to satisfy both the id and the superego" (645). Mention of the "mother" can only be made with reserve and discretion. "The status of French allows us to use it to express what we really shoudn't express and what we cannot say in our mother tongue (in the strict sense of the word, the language of the mother)." In this way, the writer's "I" asserts itself by avoiding the law of the group. The iconoclastic works of cer- tain authors cannot at present be spoken except in French. Although the Moroccan Mohammed Choukri and the Algerian Amine Azoui have done so in Arabic, no Arabic editor has yet dared to publish their works. Within this context, the use of a foreign language becomes an obligatory rite of passage that liberates young Maghrebians from inhibiting attachments. As Basfao explains, "The mother tongue is a taboo terrain, a field where any and all investigation is experienced as an intrusion, an unbearable penetration" (649). He adds, "The Maghrebian writer cannot spell out his mother tongue because that signifies, phantasmatically, the violation of the mother, the life-giving and protecting bosom" (649). Because writers cannot dismember this maternal tongue that etches tattoos on their linguistic memory, he concludes, they must repress their desire, for pursuing it in Arabic would mean "striking a blow against the whole- ness of the mother's body and her domain: the mother tongue" (650).

The early Maghrebian novelists thus wrote French-language novels about the family, about origins, and about relationships with parents. For Basfao, such writings are "the symbolic embodiment of a ritual matricide" (650). The phrase "beautiful but maleficent foreigner" (Khatibi's euphemism for the French language) suggests the idea of infidelity toward the mother, who "permits the creation of a forbidden relationship, one might say an incestuous relationship with an ersatz mother who has all the attributes of a stepmother" (650). Thus, in Boudjedra's Repudiation, the writer "does with the stepmother everything that is prohibited with the mother" (650). When a Maghrebian man marries a foreign woman, the marriage can be considered a "simulacrum of transgres- sion." Fleeing from the incestuous desire for the mother, the man seeks the foreign woman who is coveted as the symbolic equivalent of the Oedipal love object (see Dejeux, Image). Within this context, "the displacement of mother to stepmother, of maternal language to foreign language, permits the return of the repressed and the passage to the scriptural act" (650). Writers defend themselves against the mother's devouring aggression and give way to the critical spirit, thereby escaping the "language of fusion" and the necessity of conform- ing to the group.



Jean Dejeux I 11

To protect themselves against the "beautiful but maleficent stranger" who possessed them (like afitna, a troubling and seductive tester), they will dismember her, even break her into pieces, as if to say, "See here, I am not French; I am not bound to the norms of French grammar, the wicked stepmother." At the same time, they are "penetrating" all the resonances of the primary, mother culture. The use of the French language thus permeates the depths of the Ma- ghrebian's conflict at a profound, unconscious level. As the Moroccan critic Zohra Mezgueldi has pointed out, "the problem of identity has just been inscribed in the problem of language, with the mother tongue going back to a cultural time and a symbolic field, that of a popular (oral) culture whose trans- mission and preservation are... assured by the woman." She regards writing as "a return to the time of childhood," for "writing about childhood is the expression of loss and of wounds" (52-55). The mother and the child's linkage with her have been lost. How can they be regained except by writing about them? Although writing in French is a profound, "wounded writing," it permits Maghrebian writers to distance themselves from the mother and from other Ma- ghrebians; that is, it prevents fusion with them. French is a positive, critical, neutral language that is beyond the "incestuous" passion. But by using it, the writer risks "floating" in anomy. How can he become whole again? French permits the emergence of an "I" that destroys the union with the mother and abro- gates the castrating constraint of the group. Although gained at the price of a "wound," the French language, the "maleficent stranger," has,often served them well.

In contrast, French has often been derided by Algerian critics as a capital- ist tongue, the tongue of yesterday's occupiers, the language of infidels. It has been accused of being a "foreign cultural aggression," and those who write in French are criticized for "thinking" in French. In Morocco, opponents of the French language are no less virulent: they complain about a misunderstanding of the true Morocco, a false modernism, inauthenticity, a literature that lam- poons Moroccan society, critics who have been seduced by Western theory, and cultural domination by the "other." In Tunisia, works written in French are often ignored in official cultural circles, except at the university.

Such voices are not without their own critics. Mohammed Benn pointed out that francophone writers had been the renewers of national culture in Morocco. Mouloud Kassem Nait Belkacem in Algeria declared that French is "the only and unique positive acquisition from our period of colonization," although he went on to say that it should be used advisedly, that is to say, "as a means of access to the world and not as a substitute for our language" (31). Since the 1950s, Maghrebian writers have frequently defended the use of French. Although writing in French cannot be taken for granted in the Magh- reb, it has succeeded in establishing a rich intercultural strain of literary expression firmly anchored in traditional Maghrebian society and open to modernity. For those who continue to write in French, it has become a language that over- comes tendencies toward sterility and withdrawal.




A few Maghrebian writers pretend that they do not want to be considered as Maghrebians, for they regard themselves simply as writers, but when their names are omitted from discussions of North African literature, they are the first to be offended. Are they Maghrebian writers or not? The question becomes even more complicated when one considers the ideological criteria that have sometimes been applied to determine the "authenticity" of Maghrebian writers. For example, to be an authentic Algerian writer in the 1960s, one was supposed "to be an Arabo-Muslim writer (a radical criterion), to be the herald of our specific socialism (a political criterion)" (Greki 194). Writers such as Senac, Mohammed Dib, Mouloud Mammeri, Mouloud Feraoun, and many others were rejected according to these criteria.

It was in opposition to such arbitrary categorizing schemes that some Maghrebian writers proclaimed themselves universal writers. Others, particularly in Algeria, refused to participate in creating a literature of slogans. Still others have rejected the reductive regionalism that has sometimes been associated with the expression "Maghrebian literature." In 1966, Driss Chraibi exclaimed, "I am a writer who writes in French, that's all" (Interview 42). Ahmed Azeggah expressed a similar sentiment in declaring, "When I read an author, I am not concerned with his nationality" (Interview). Yet one cannot overlook the undertones of bad conscience in such statements. It is as if being called a "North African novelist" would be somehow denigrating or marginaliz- ing, as if there were something about being North African that needs to be repressed. Ismail Kadare, Jorge Luis Borges, Milan Kundera, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez are not ashamed to be considered Albanian, Argentinian, Czech, or Colombian, although their writings are filled with universal resonances. Tahar Djaout resolved this dilemma in a simple straightforward manner when he asserted that "... an Algerian writer is a writer of Algerian nationality and... his outlook on his environment and on the world can only be that of an Algerian, a view that will enrich Algeria all the more because he will inscribe it in a universal context, a context of universal values" (Interview 85).

Following this line of argument, one might feel justified in concluding that a North African novel is any novel written by a North African, even though novels such as Jean-Marie Le Clezio's Desert and Jean Pelegri's Le Maboul or Ma Mere, I'Algerie resonate more deeply with the territory than many so-called Maghrebian novels. Furthermore, novels by Maghrebian writers such as Kateb Yacine and Mouloud Mammeri have drawn inspiration from Vietnam, Latin America, and other parts of the world. Despite the ideological constraints imposed on Maghrebian writers, many of them have begun to think of themselves as having entered the postmodern period. The imaginary has been liberated for them, even if it continues to be marked by its origins and its characteristic sensitivities.

The historical dimension (colonization, the struggle for liberation, social change in the post-war period, aspirations for a better future) and the cultural dimension (a North African reality emanating from a distinctive sensitivity



Jean Djeux I 13

marked by a religiously-based Islamic education and influenced by Arabo- Berber oral traditions as well as by assimilated foreign ideas) have been para- mount in Maghrebian francophone novels. Various permutations of the Franco-Maghrebian mix have manifested themselves in these works, and new syntheses have emerged. During the colonial era, the use of French gave many Maghrebians access to modernity and enabled them to link its values with ancestral traditions. By allowing their first language to speak through French, some of them created works of literary genius, not because they forcefully broke apart the French language, but because they, in Khatibi's words, regained contact with their own imaginary space. His own writing thus speaks "in tongues," although all francophone Maghrebian writers obviously did not attain his level of artistic achievement.

The theme of emigration from North Africa to France has often been treated in novels by North Africans, including Driss Chraibi's Les Boucs (1955), Chabane Ouahioune's Conquerants du parc rouge (1980), and Rachid Boudjedra's Topographie ideale pour une agression caracteristique (1975) (see Dejeux, "Romanciers"), but the focus on this topic has now largely been taken over by young Maghrebians who were born in France or who were brought there early in their lives by their parents. For these "Beurs," France or Europe is their starting point. They understand the world from the inside of otherness. They are not interested in immigration, as were their elders, because they have never emigrated, at least as adults.

The French regard these authors as French or as Franco-Algerians (in fact, the majority of them do have an Algerian background); however, they are always considered Algerians by the Algerian government, and anyone who desires to claim a nationality other than Algerian must be "authorized by decree to renounce Algerian citizenship." Under such circumstances, it is not surpris- ing that individual identity has come to be seen as plural and ambiguous.

The "Beurs" have been described as having burst onto the French literary scene, but the term itself is relatively little known outside Paris. It has been used as a blanket term for all immigrants, for Kateb Yacine, for an Algerian student in Moscow, and for migrant workers from North Africa. It has been discussed in the columns of Le Monde, and it has become an entry in Le Petit Larousse. Yet despite terminological confusions, what is clear is that the literary productions of the younger generation of Franco-Maghrebian writers are distinct from those of confirmed authors who have lived for a long time in France: Mohammed Dib, Assia Djebar, Ali Boumahdi, Rabah Belamri, Ahmed Zitouni, D. E. Ben- cheikh, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Driss Chraibi, Abdelwahab Meddeb, and others. Cultivating Western habits, Western modes of behavior, and Western ways of understanding the world, these young Franco-Maghrebians have an Islamic background, but their culture has been crossfertilized in the West. The content, the tone, and the preoccupations of their writing do not descend in a direct and continuous line from what has come to be known as francophone North African literature. Algeria is not their native land; it is the land of their




parents. They fantasize about it from afar, and they criticize it, but they also view it with a healthy sense of humor.

When did this literature begin? Perhaps with Jean-Luc Yacine's La Boetie ( 1977) and Zoulika Boukortt's Le Corps en pieces ( 1977) or perhaps with Hocine Touabti's novel L'Amour quand meme (1981). Some date its origins in 1983 with the "Marche des Beurs" through France and the publication of Mehdi Charefs novel Le The au harem d'Archi Ahmed, which was subsequently made into a well-known film. According to my calculation, this movement has produced 25 novels written by eighteen different Algerian authors. In addition, there are several autobiographies, three novels by Franco-Moroccans, a novel by the rock singer Sapho (a young Jewish woman originally from Marrakech), and the works of Sebbar.

I include the works of these writers in the corpus of francophone North African literature, but they themselves do not always agree. Surveys and inter- views show that some critics also do not accept this identification, whereas others contend that there is no such thing as "Beur" literature. Some regard these young people as French writers, while others argue that their works are not suf- ficiently "violent" to reflect the Franco-Algerian mentality. What is clear is that the imagination of these authors is Franco-Algerian. According to Ahmed Kalouaz, "The fictive reference [in their works] will always remain different, since the sources are marked, no matter what happens, by memories and by private odors" (Interview). And Djanet Lachmet concludes, "Inasmuch as Alge- rian literature in French is novelistic and thus modern, it rightly belongs to French or European literature. Its history forms a chapter in the history of French literature" (Interview). The debate is of course a familiar one, but Lach- met overlooks the fact that the novelistic genre has been known in the Arab world since the nineteenth century and that it was subsequently "nationalized" and "Arabicized." Why insist upon relegating the literary works of her compa- triots to an appendix of French literature? Why should these writers be com- pelled to write only about Algeria? The literature that has resulted from North African immigration to France is in fact ambiguous, a blending that exists at the crossroads of cultures. Yet even in North Africa, many authors feel restricted, because their real-life circumstances place them between cultures rather than in the "lair" of their parents. In North Africa as in the Franco-Maghrebian migration, young writers frequently resort to doubling games and doubling languages. A just appraisal of North African literature is rendered more difficult by the number of French prizes that have been bestowed on Maghrebian writers since the early 1950s.

In the first years after independence, there were also North African prizes for works in French, but as Arabicization has proceeded, the rules for such prizes have begun to stipulate that the nominated works be written in Arabic. Works in a "foreign" language can only be considered on an exceptional basis. This practice has led to some absurd situations. For example, when a literary contest was announced to commemorate the beginning of the independence struggle in



Jean Djeux I 15

Algeria, the text of the announcement was in French, despite the fact that all entries in the contest were to be written in Arabic. "But," asked one observer, "why publish in French a rule meant only for speakers of Arabic?... The members of the Resistance and the non-Arabicized militants are reduced to the ranks of auxiliaries" (Abdou). That is to say, they have been reduced to silence.

The award of the Prix Goncourt to Ben Jelloun in 1987 had a powerful echo in the press. In both Europe and North Africa, the award was controver- sial (see Dejeux, "Reception"). According to some North African critics, Ben Jelloun intentionally set out to please the foreigners who distribute such prizes. They contended that he reinforced European stereotypes by pandering to a Western taste for folklore, quaint traditions, and exotic scenes. Moroccan critics accused him of creating artificial, fabricated stories that failed to convey a picture of the real Morocco. They were offended by the fact that he spoke ill of Morocco, criticized it, and revealed sides of Moroccan life that are usually kept hidden. The story of a girl dressed as a boy in L'Enfant du Sable was scandalous in their eyes, although after the prize was awarded, a number of them apparently changed their minds and praised it.

With the French government's increased emphasis on francophony, the biographical and bibliographical notices on North African writers in standard reference books have increased in quantity and improved in quality. Theses on North African literature are regularly defended at universities in France and elsewhere. Translations of Maghrebian novels have been published in numerous languages, particularly in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, but also in Germany, England, and the United States. Anthologies of North African literature have appeared in France, Germany, the Soviet Union, Italy, Denmark, and other countries. The world-wide interest in these literatures is indicated by the fact that educational programs and research centers devoted to them have been created in France, England, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Aus- tria, Italy, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Benmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, the Soviet Union, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Egypt, India, Korea, Japan, Australia, Cameroon, and Mauritania as well as in the Maghreb- ian countries themselves.

By force of circumstance, only a limited number of Maghrebian writers are widely available in French or in translation, and they are always the same ones. Ironically, at the very moment when this literature, or at least that of its most important authors, is becoming more broadly known throughout the world, the reading and dissemination of francophone North African literature is encountering greater obstacles in the Maghreb, where it tends to be known largely in intellectual or academic milieux. Maghrebian publishers show little interest in distributing francophone literature in the region, although the Alge- rian Societe Nationale d'Edition et de Diffusion (SNED) and its successor, the Entreprise Nationale du Livre (ENAL) have published more Maghrebian works than have Parisian firms such as Seuil, Gallimard, and Denoel. Nevertheless, the most well-known North African authors continue to be published in




France. The works of the Prix Goncourt winner Ben Jelloun were imported in large numbers to Morocco, but other authors have not been so fortunate in their countries of origin.

What about the future of francophone Maghrebian literature? A few years ago, a number of critics had already sung its funeral dirge. However, the quantity of works recently written in French by North African writers demon- strates that these literatures are alive and flourishing. In spite of enormous dif- ficulties, new publishers have emerged in the Maghrebian countries to publish their works. New newspapers have been launched, especially in Algeria, where the national publishing firms continue to publish in French, and, as I men- tioned earlier, worldwide interest in Maghrebian literature continues to grow. The fascination of Maghrebian literature in French might well have something to do with its unique qualities. As Naget Khadda observes, "The changings and mixings of languages, consubstantial with confrontations and cultural mixings, create the uniques of this literature and... enhance the odds for its success" ([En]jeux 16-17).

Nevertheless, questions remain. Are these works read in North Africa? By whom? How widely distributed are they? How many authors are generally known? Doctoral theses have proliferated in recent years, but they tend to dis- cuss the same novels and the same authors, ignoring the new authors, the new paths of writing, and the new themes that have already begun to emerge. Some North African writers, particularly those who are products of immigration, might well be absorbed into French literature, and no one knows what policies will be adopted by national publishing firms in Algeria or by private publishers throughout the Maghreb. The Algerian sociologist Nadji Safir reflected on the future of this literature and concluded that, although bilingualism is possible for individuals, it cannot be sustained by an entire society. The French language remained after independence, he observed, and it will continue to "serve as an important working tool" for a long time to come. He acknowledges that francophone authors played a positive role in national history, and he contends that they deserve to be considered part of the national patrimony.

The Arabic-language Moroccan novelist Mohammed Berrada considers francophone North African literature "an integral part of [modern North Afri- can] literature that gives us a necessary base for the transformation of literary discourse." Even when it is written in French, he admits "it crystallizes a part of our sensitivity and of our aspirations" (Interview). But, asks Safir, can an Alge- rian literature in French be produced at the present time by new authors? Can such authors create a "socially relevant" literary movement in contemporary Algeria? He does not believe so. In the first place, he argues, "A national production only makes sense if it expresses the world view, the aspirations, and the interrogations of groups which are numerically significant and/or which, by their role in social renewal, are socially perceived as such, and which in one way



Jean Dejeux I 17

or another, would recognize themselves in the work" (56). Secondly, he contends that formal experiments would not be understood or would only be understood with great difficulty by the potential readership within the country. For this reason, he concludes that expression in French will become "more and more excentric with respect to the national cultural production" (56). In his eyes, it could, in fact, only be articulated "as a peripheral cell of the mother literature, of French literature, which is the only system capable of providing it with objective conditions for its aesthetic and formal regulation, as well as its content" (56). Safir clearly believes that the content of North African novels ought to be "North African," although this approach reinforces the Arabicized public's unitary focus and intensifies its lack of openness toward intercultural experiences and world outlooks.

Given the progression of Arabicization in North African countries and the growing recognition of an Arabic-language literature by the society itself, it seems probable that the future of Maghrebian literature lies with the Arabic language. This prognosis does not apply to the literature that has resulted from immigration or to the literature created by former immigrants. Individuals living in North Africa or abroad will always be able to write in French, but as Memmi said in 1957, the ensemble of this new literature will be composed in Arabic (Interview 10). Memmi did not foresee the possibility that some authors would write in Arabic and in French. Such writers do exist, but they are only individuals, and they can hardly be regarded as threatening national unity, national identity, or the dominant official culture. We can only hope that, rather than succumbing to the pressures that are leading it toward cultural isola- tion, the Maghreb will experience, instead, an opening to the fertile conflu- ences of the universal.

translated by Ruthmarie H. Mitsch

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