Abstract

Writers Between Cultures

Apologists for empire like to talk of roads, dams, ports and the like as proof of their good works. Rarely, if ever do they cite books which are native but in large part also the product of western education and culture. In the last few years, a torrent of literature has poured forth from North Africa, like the rivers of that region in flood. These are indisputable tributes to French enlightenment which no North African begrudges. Moroccans, Algerians and Tunisians are writing in French and winning literary prizes in Pans. For an understanding of condition, in what is called an underdeveloped area there is no surer source than these stories. Going from west to east, the author starts in Morocco with Driss Chraibi, whose first book, "Le Pqsse Simple," was published in 1954. Dedicated to Francois Mauriac, it expresses a Moroccan nationalism directly descended from French nationalism.