R. Quinn Mecham and Dr. Arnold H. Green, Humanities, Classics, and Comp. Literature
The research for this grant formed the basis for my Honors Thesis, which was completed August 1997. The completed thesis was a total of 133 pages in length and parts of the thesis will be submitted for journal publication. The project took approximately 300 hours to complete and involved one research trip to UCLA in addition to extensive support from interlibrary loan at BYU.
The project aimed to look at the literary production in Tunisia during a period of significant political change for the country as Tunisia’s long-time president, Habib Bourguiba, was toppled in a military coup in 1987. I chose to analyze literature published by Tunisians during the period of 1986-1989 in an attempt to capture Tunisian political sentiment both on the eve of the coup and immediately thereafter. I chose to specifically focus on literature published in French because of its freedom from governmental censorship (as it is primarily published in France), and because the French texts are much more widespread and readily available than Tunisian literature in Arabic. I also chose to focus specifically on the genre of the novel because of its popularity during this period and because the political content of the genre during this period is much more extensive than all other literary genres.
In the four-year period analyzed, I discovered that eight francophone Tunisian novels with significant political themes and content were published. These eight works formed the basis of my study. They included works which varied widely in both literary quality and in ideology, and demonstrated multiple aspects of the Tunisian cultural and political personality. The eight works examined were:
1) Mohamed Gasmi, Chronique des Sans-Terre (1986)
2) Taj Eddine Vent d’Emeute (1987)
3) Nour Eddine El Abassy Sonate à Zeïneb (1987)
4) Fawzi Mellah Le Conclave des Pleureuses (1987)
5) Mustapha Tlili La Montagne du Lion (1988)
6) Albert Memmi Le Pharaon (1988)
7) Anouar Attia De A jusqu’a T (1988)
8) Ridha Bourkhis Un Retour au Pays du Bon Dieu (1989)
In addition to an examination of these novels, I also spent considerable time studying the history of North African and Tunisian literature and included this in the project. The final paper contained twenty pages reviewing the literary historical context in which this four-year period of Tunisian literature was situated. As well, I tried to place this type of analysis in a proper theoretical context and provided twenty pages of introductory commentary on the issue of political literature in the modern critical climate and showed where my study fell in the various debates that are currently taking place around politics and literature.
Most significantly, a synthesis of the political themes found in the novels of the study revealed the following insights:
1) Political themes in the literature of this period focus overwhelmingly on the politics of the Bourguibist regime, looking back into recent history. They spend little time speculating on the new leader’s regime, contrary to my expectations at the beginning of the study. Rather, the years around Bourguiba’s deposal were a particularly prolific time for reflecting on the events, issues, and personalities that were a part of Tunisian history under Bourguiba’s government.
2) Virtually every work that addresses political themes shows criticism of Bourguiba’s regime. Some works are scathingly critical of the Bourguiba government, while other texts are more moderate in their tone. This criticism is most universally interested in human rights violations and restrictions on personal freedom that took place under the Bourguiba government. The most commonly addressed abuses in these categories were governmental torture of political prisoners and restrictions on the freedom of expression through governmental censorship. The works of Gasmi and Tlili are repeatedly concerned with torture, while the majority of the works deal with problems of freedom of expression. In addition, criticism of Bourguiba’s regime is interested in highlighting the hypocrisy of the government and its false promises for reform. The novels of Tlili and Attia are the works most concerned with these issues. The works also demonstrate a common interest in discussing the political instability of Bourguiba’s regime in its final years. Riots, protests, and conflicts between the military and the people are important themes in the novels of Taj Eddine, Mellah, and Attia.
3) A number of works show direct interest in exploring Bourguiba the man, in his role as Tunisian president. The novels of Mellah, Tlili, Memmi, and Attia all focus on Bourguiba specifically, and make some commentaries regarding his personality and character. These works are critical of the Tunisian president in three general areas: a) he is power hungry and self-interested, b) he is senile, or even insane, and c) he is anachronistic and should have stepped down long before he was deposed. Despite these criticisms, however, the novels of Mellah, Memmi, and Attia also portray the president in a positive light. They provide some criticism of the man, but this criticism is balanced, if not outweighed, by positive commentary. There is a measured respect for the greatness of the man, especially as revealed through his heroic actions in the nationalist period of Tunisian history. In addition, the novels of Taj Eddine, Mellah, and Memmi demonstrate criticism of Bourguiba’s enemies who fail to show any respect for him.