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The Woman and the Rose (Arabic: المرأة و الوردة) is a 1972 novel by Mohamed Zafzaf, which critics have described as a turning point in the development of the modern Moroccan Arabic novel.

Plot

The novel centers around Muhammad, an educated Moroccan in his thirties living in Torremolinos, Spain. Impoverished, adrift, and alienated, Muhammad lives off of the European women he sleeps with. Two friends, also Moroccan emigrants, involve him in a scheme to smuggle cannabis from Tangier. After Muhammad's mistakes undermine the plan, his friends abandon him in Morocco, where the novel concludes.

Themes

The style of The Woman and the Rose is disorganized and labyrinthine, departing from the previous conventions of Moroccan literature in its use of multiple narrators and reliance on symbolic and aesthetic imagery. By departing from the style of "nationalist realism" established by Abdelkrim Ghallab and pervasive in Moroccan literature, Zafzaf established a new form for the Moroccan novel. Zafzaf's stylistic innovations respond to the literary critiques of figures such as Abdallah Laroui, Abdelkebir Khatibi, and Mohammed Berrada, while also allowing him to level subtle criticisms at the social structures of postcolonial Morocco.

Zafzaf's earthy, realistic depictions of human bodies, physical pleasures, sex, and drugs have drawn criticism from some Moroccan critics, who have described the book as "bestial" and "obscene". Other critics have praised his "frenzied affirmation of the body", a theme which sparked a new trend in Moroccan literature. Other controversial themes in The Woman and the Rose include the concepts of gender, self, identity, and otherness.

References

1. "AL ITIHAD". 30 March 2022. Archived from the original on 30 March 2022. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
2. ^ PARRILLA, GONZALO FERNÁNDEZ (2011). "Breaking the Canon: Zafzaf, Laroui and the Moroccan novel". From New Values to New Aesthetics: Turning Points in Modern Arabic Literature, Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden. pp. 75–84.
3. ^ Campbell, Ian (2013). Labyrinths, Intellectuals and the Revolution. Brill. pp. 199–200. ISBN 978-90-04-24769-7.
4. ^ El-Outmani, Ismaïl (1997). "Prolegomena to the Study of the "Other" Moroccan Literature". Research in African Literatures. 28 (3): 110–121. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
5. "محمد زفزاف و"صنعة الكاتب"". 29 March 2022. Archived from the original on 29 March 2022. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
6. "محمد زفزاف.. مغامرة الكتابة في تلويناتها العديدة". 30 March 2022. Archived from the original on 30 March 2022. Retrieved 14 June 2022.

• 1972 novels
• Arabic-language novels
• Moroccan novels