Novel
دفنا الماضي
Not translated into English
Abdelkrim Ghallab · 1966
Synopsis
In Fez, under the protectorate, a large house lives under the absolute authority of Hajj Mohammed, a stern father who alone holds the reins of the family, beside his wife Khadouj, submissive to his law. While Abderrahmane, the central figure of the novel, passes from obedience to political awareness and joins the resistance against France, at the price of prison, the women of the house pay the price of the old customs: Yasmine, the servant raped and sold at the slave market, Aïcha, deprived of education and of the choice of her husband. The qadi Mahmoud, for his part, allies himself with the occupier.
Context
The novel appeared in 1966 and received the Morocco Prize. It is seen as the model of a “nationalist realism”. Hespress counts it among the first contemporary Moroccan novels to set out the state of society as it emerged from the protectorate; forty years later, its author gave it a counterpart whose title asserts that the past has not been buried. Francis Gouin translated it into French in 1990 for Publisud, with a preface by Jacques Berque.
Who it is for
A long novel in clear classical Arabic, with dialogue close to the spoken language; translated into French.
Prizes and reception
Prix du Maroc; regarded as one of the founding novels of modern Moroccan literature.