The Sacred Night
Place on List:
II. Literary Genre: The
Novel
3.
How is political conflict directly represented in novels?
Tahar
Ben Jelloun. *The
Sacred Night.
(1987, Morrocco)
Supporting References:
- LA Times Review: http://articles.latimes.com/1989-11-19/books/bk-174_1_sacred-night
- Sellin, Eric. "Ben Jelloun, Tahar." The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. : Oxford University Press, 1995. Oxford Reference. 2005. Date Accessed 16 Aug. 2013
The article offers
an overview of Ben Jelloun and less a discussion on the above-cited
text.
“Ben
Jelloun, Tahar (b. 1944). Moroccan novelist. Born in
Fez, he moved at 18 with his family to Tangier where he attended the
French lycée. Both towns were to play significant roles in
his poetry and fiction. He then studied in Rabat, during which time
he collaborated on the journal Souffles
and published his first poems, Hommes sous linceul de silence
(1971), and a first novel, Harrouda (1973). He obtained a
doctorate in psychiatric social work in France, his thesis being
based on case histories of North African immigrant workers whom Ben
Jelloun had counselled, mostly with regard to the sexual dysfunction
they tended to suffer while in France. His second novel, La
Réclusion solitaire (1976), fictionalized some of these case
histories and his dissertation was subsequently published as La
plus haute des solitudes (1977).
“On the surface, Ben Jelloun's works
are readily accessible tales, and yet one cannot have a full
appreciation of his work without some idea of how Arabic language,
Koranic imagery, and other aspects of traditional Moroccan
culture—including the literary traits of errancy, delirium,
fantasy, the quest voyage, and narrative framing found in the Mille
et une Nuits and other classics of Eastern literature—have
entered into French discourse.
“Ben Jelloun's earlier novels
include: Harrouda (1973), a haunting ‘psycho‐spatial’
tale of the quite different urban experiences of Fez and Tangier;
Moha le fou, Moha le sage (1978), the confused and tortured
ravings of a man who yet speaks eloquently on behalf of the
downtrodden and disenfranchised ‘wretched of the Earth’; La
Prière de l'absent (1981), which describes, against the
backdrop of Moroccan politics and the legendary lives of the
resistance patriots Krim and Ma‐al‐Aynayn, a quest to the south
of Morocco by two mentally troubled men, Boby and Sindibad, an old
woman, and an infant of destiny who has come under their care; and
L'Écrivain public (1983), a remarkable but lesser‐known
novel whose story of the travails of a physical and psychological
invalid is cleverly disclosed in letters, diaries, reminiscences, and
dreams.
“His most successful books to date
have been L'Enfant de sable (1985) and its sequel La
Nuit sacrée (1987, Prix Goncourt). The two books describe the
psychological misshaping of a girl who is raised as a boy by her
father and her subsequent rediscovery and affirmation of her female
identity which she retrieves through a series of violent and erotic
experiences. There followed Jour de silence à Tanger
(1990), which is the interior monologue of an old man whose waning
days are articulated primarily in listless introspection as he
relives ancient, often erotic, memories; and Les Yeux baissés
(1991), in which a girl, in an itinerary similar to that taken by Ben
Jelloun and other francophone writers, moves from rural Morocco to
France, becomes competent in French, and yearns to become a writer.
“Ben Jelloun's poetry, ranging from
brief enigmatic texts to surrealistic prose poems, is rich in imagery
and highly lyrical. Representative poems may be found in Les
Amandiers sont morts de leurs blessures, suivi de A l'insu du
souvenir (1983), which includes such earlier collections as
Cicatrices du soleil (1972) and Le Discours du chameau
(1974).”
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