Bashir Khrayyef
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Bashir Khrayyef | |
|---|---|
| البشير خريف | |
 | |
| Born | April 10, 1917 Nefta, Tunisia |
| Died | December 17, 1983 |
| Occupation | Novelist |
Bashir Khrayyef (Arabic: البشير خريٌف, romanized: al-Bashīr Khurayyif; April 10, 1917 – December 17, 1983) was a Tunisian writer, considered "the father of the realist novel in Tunisia."[1] He is known for his harshly realistic descriptions of Tunisian society as well as for his use of Tunisian Arabic in the dialogues of his novels.[2][3]
Khrayyef was born on April 10, 1917, in Nefta, government of Tozeur in southwest Tunisia. He came from a literary family; his brother was the poet Mustafa Khrayyef.[citation needed]
Writing career
Khrayyef's most famous historical novel, Barq al-layl ("Night Lightning," 1961) is set in Tunis during 16th-century Hafsid rule.[3] The novel treats the topics of slavery and racism through the love story of the protagonist, a black slave.[1]
Arguably his most influential novel, al-Digla fī ‘arājīnihā ("Dates in their Branches," 1969), is set in an oasis community in the southwest desert of Tunisia in the 1910s–1930s.[4] The remoteness of the community is emphasized through the use of a local dialect of Tunisian Arabic.[3] The book also articulates the relationship between the Tunisian labor movement and the later independence movement.[4]
His final novel, Ḥubbak darbānī ("Your Love is Maddening," 1980) recounts an impossible love between a man and a prostitute.[1]
