Literature:tunisia

Literature:tunisia

If Tunisia still lags behind Morocco, and especially Algeria, in Francophone literary production, its Arabic-language literature is more significant both in quantity and quality. In Tunis, two institutions have fostered the revival and continuation of Arabic teaching, the secular and bilingual Lycee Sadiki and the conservative Al Zituna University. The best exponent of this new intellectual thinking is undoubtedly Tahir Haddad (1901-1935), who advocates a revamping of old traditions and values, emphasizing the catalytic role of the working class (as in his 1927 essay "Tunisian Workers and the Emergence of Trade Unionism") and especially of women (in his 1930 provocative but foresighted essay "Our Women before Shazia [body of Islamic law] and Society") in this rebirth. Politically, this rebirth coincided with the emergence of the Neo-Dustur Party, which espoused a radical platform of national independence. This desire to forge a new and distinctively Tunisian identity is reflected in the works of a group of poets, short-story tellers, polemicists, and journalists known as Taht Al-Sur (Under the Ramparts), named after the cafe where they met. The most talented of this group is Ali Du'aji (1909-1949). His short stories, full of humor and mordant wit, are still widely read in Tunisia. Yet in the belles lettres of the period, the most popular genre was poetry, and in this province Abul Kacem Al-shabbi (1909-1934), the poet of love and youth, reigned supreme. Indeed, Al-Shabbi, Tunisia's best-known poet in the Arab world, was also the first to break away from a classical rhetorical tradition that was out of touch with modem sensitivity and concerns. However, Al-Shabbi was a lone voice in Tunisia, indeed in the Maghreb, as he had little influence on his contemporaries who continued writing traditional verse, using time-honored rhetorical devices. ARABOPHONE LITERATURE Among the literary figures Arab, one can quote Ali Douagi, who produced more than 150 radiophonic tales, mahmoud messadi with 500 poems and popular songs and nearly 15 plays, Béchir Khraief, which gave a new breath to the Arab novel in the years 1930 and published in 1937 his first novel which made scandal because the dialogs were written in Tunisian dialect, Moncef Ghachem or Mahmoud Messaadi. Tunisian poetry, opts to nonconformism and innovation: Abou el Kacem Chebbi thus brings a new language by deploring the poverty of imagination in the Arab literature. FRANCOPHONE  LITERATURE The Tunisian Francophone  literature concerns literally the XXth century only strictly speaking. It is enriched firstly by Arab Moslem authors - as Mahmoud Aslan or Salah Farhat - more than minorities authors Jewish (Ryvel or César Benattar), Italian even Maltese (Marius Scalési). In addition, the Francophone  literature also takes a rise thanks to the French people installed in Tunisia who based a literary life by taking model on the Parisian literary life. Today, it is characterized by its critical direction. Contrary to pessimism of Albert Memmi, which predicted that the Tunisian literature was condemned to die young, Tunisian writers bore abroad: Abdelwahab Meddeb, Tahar Bekri, Mustapha Tlili, Hélé Béji or Fawzi Mellah. The topics of the wandering, the exile and tearing constitute the main axis of this literary creation.