Chraïbi, Driss (b. 1926). Leading Moroccan writer of the ‘Generation of’ 52'. His first novel, Le Passé simple (1954), was a literary bombshell. Published at the height of the French-Moroccan conflict, Chraibi's invective text spared neither French colonial rule nor Moroccan, patriarchal society. His compatriots accused him of betraying his country at a time when it was seeking independence from France. French critics and journalists, on the other hand, used the book to justify the preservation of the French protectorate in Morocco. Disturbed by the controversy, Chraïbi publicly disowned his novel in 1957, only to regret this gesture years later.
Born in El Jadida, Morocco, Chraïbi was one of a token few native Moroccans to pursue secondary studies in a French lycée. In 1945 he left for Paris, where he studied chemical engineering and neuropsychiatry. Disillusioned with science, he abandoned his formal studies and travelled throughout Europe and Israel. He has held various jobs in France, where he now lives.
Chraïbi is the author of 12 novels and a collection of short stories, all published in Paris. In Les Boucs (1955), L'Âne (1956), De tous les horizons (1958), La Foule (1961), Un ami viendra vous voir (1967), and Mort au Canada (1975), he explores a variety of themes in diverse geographical settings. They include the plight of immigrant workers in France, racism, political corruption in the Third World, women's liberation, and interpersonal relationships in the West. Despite his attempts not to be labelled a regional writer, Chraïbi's most successful works are those dedicated to the Maghreb and its people: Le Passé simple, Les Boucs, Succession ouverte (1962), La Civilisation, ma mère!… (1972), Une enquête au pays (1981), La Mère du printemps (L'Oum-er-Bia) (1982), Naissance à l'aube (1986), and L'Inspecteur Ali (1991).
Although Le Passé simple was hailed as a classic tale of revolt against the father, Chraïbi contended in 1983 that it was really about love for the mother, who also symbolizes the homeland. Yet it is only in Succession ouverte, which depicts the return to the native land, that Chraïbi displays real empathy towards the mother and her land. In La Civilisation, ma mère!… the emancipation of the narrator and the future of the Maghreb is viewed in relation to the social evolution of women. The angry and violent tone of Chraïbi's early novels makes way for a tender and lyrical style in his later works.
If there is one underlying theme that unites all of Chraïbi's works, it is the indictment of civilization. In a century characterized by ethnocide and in a world full of dispossessed, it is only fitting that this Moroccan Berber and exiled writer should choose to write for and about those who have endured centuries of foreign conquest and domination. He writes on behalf of those peoples who have had to relinquish their land, their historic past, their voice, and their identity: all the minorities who comprise, Chraïbi reminds us, the great majority of this world.
Many years have passed since the angry young man of Le Passé simple decided to break with his past and turn to the West. In the mystical and life-celebrating prose of Naissance à l'aube, a 60-year-old exile finds the way back to his native land and to the historic past of his people.
[<auth>Danielle Marx-Scouras]
Bibliography
- H. Kadra-Hadjadji, Contestation et révolte dans l'œuvre de Driss Chraïbi (1986); Revue CELFAN Review, 5, 2 (1986), devoted to Chraïbi
- D. Marx-Scouras, ‘A Literature of Departure: The Cross-Cultural Writing of Driss Chraïbi’,
Research in African Literatures, 23 , 2 (1992)
