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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Arabic-language Tunisian literature (1956-1990)
Author:Fontaine, J.ISNI
Year:1992
Periodical:Research in African Literatures
Volume:23
Issue:2
Pages:183-193
Language:English
Geographic term:Tunisia
Subjects:literature
Arabic language
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3820405
Abstract:During the last forty years, Tunisia has experienced the end of French occupation (1956), a republic under President Bourguiba (1956-1987), and 'the Rule of Law' (since 1987). These political changes, however, had no immediate effect on the Tunisian literary scene. Therefore, to understand the Arabic-language Tunisian literature of this period, the author takes recourse to other classificatory criteria. Approximately 680 literary works were published by Tunisians during this time: 270 of them were collections of poetry, and 100 were novels. Tunisian literature since the 1950s has largely been a journalistic literature. This means that Tunisian authors are mainly published in newspapers and magazines and that Tunisian literature is explicitly written for newspapers and magazines. Thus, short stories are far more common than novels, and poetry is published in fragments without any overall sense of coherence. During the 1950s, literature in Tunisia was highly nationalistic. The young writers of the 1960s had not experienced the struggle for national liberation, and they were disappointed with the results of independence: their work tended to be steeped in pessimism. The economic liberalism that returned to Tunisia in the 1970s, bringing with it considerable growth and development, did not stimulate an analogous outthrust of literary activity. The literature of the 1980s reflected the violent confrontations that took place between the labour union and the PSD (Destour Socialist Party). Bibliogr.
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