Reading of the Moroccan Novel in the Perspective of the Arabic Critic Texts: Focused on the Novel「We buried the past」

This paper explores critical reviews and presents arguments for the position that the work of Abdulkerim Ghallab entitled 「We buried the past」be included in the high school and university Arabic Literature curriculum based on its tremendous academic value for the perspective it gives readers on pre- and post-independence Morocco. This work is a political and social novel, which depicts the Moroccan circumstance before and after being independent of France. In particular, this novel focuses on a middle-class family living in a religious city, Fez during the turbulent French colonial period. As one of the main characters, al-Hajj al-Tuhami spends his time hearing the Quran recitation and stories told by apostles in the renowned al-Quaraouiyine. He is described as a conservative and ordinary man. In fact, his second son, Abdurrahim serves as a main character. This work talks by him about the life of a common, traditional and conservative family in Morocco. As an educated person in the colonized country, he participates in an independence movement. Abdurrahim is put into the jail in the process of a strong resistance to a conspiracy to divide Morocco into two districts; the Arab and Berber. The past symbolizes undeveloped, old-fashioned, and uncivilized Morocco, which is personified in the novel by the father. We buried means not only the burial of the past after gaining independence but also the end of the father s generation.