1 - Az - Zuhra Ramīǧ : An-Nāǧūn (The Survivors)

Summary

The action of the novel An-Nāǧūn (The Survivors) by Az-Zuhra Ramīǧ takes place in Morocco and the French city of Bordeaux in the 1970s and continues in the first years of the twenty-first century. The main theme of the novel is the political struggle of the Moroccan leftist forces that emigrated to France. The author describes the changes that are taking place in the migrant community under the influence of a new life and how the attitude towards their homeland evolves. She describes the political situation in Morocco and the fight against the rule of King Hasan II.

The novel is divided into three parts: “Az-Zilzāl” (Earthquake), “Zaman alġaḍab wa aṯ-ṯawra” (The Time of Anger and Revolution), “‘Awdat as-salamūn” (Return of Salmon). The second part belongs to epistolary literature and presents the students “resistance to power” in the early 1970s. In the third part, Az-Zuhra Ramīǧ has enriched the narrative with new characters who express their political thoughts and openly speak about persecution. The heroes who took part in the events constantly retrace them. They see their commitment to fight as a necessity arising from the nation’s situation. The novel not only shows the realities of those days, but is also enriched with imaginary stories. Authentic events were recorded in the form of journals. The writer strives to reveal the truth about the people involved in events without exaggeration or resorting to overly heroicizing interpretation, although such are social expectations.

The protagonists of the novel think about the changes occurring in the Arab world. This is particularly evident in the second part of the work, “The Time of Anger and Revolution,” where the writer presents them as pursuing a revolution that brings radical changes that will ultimately introduce social justice, eliminate repression and overthrow the dictatorship. However, in the 1970s this was still not possible and the Arab Spring came after 2011, that is right after writing the novel.