Ideology and the Specificity of Creativity:A Reading of Postcolonial Maghrebi Fictional Production

DOI:https://doi-001.org/1025/17727287931499

Dr. Alima Hamzaoui¹

¹Abbas Laghrour University of Khenchela, Algeria, Laboratory of Translation, Discourse Analysis, and Digital & Comparative Cultural Studies. Email: hamzaoui.alima@univ-khenchela.dz

Prof. Hanane Hattab²

²Mohamed Lamine Debaghine, University of Sétif 2, Algeria, Laboratory of Contemporary Criticism Methods and Discourse Analysis. Email: h.hattab@univ-setif2.dz

Submission date: 11.06.2025. Accepted date: 12.12. 2025. Publicaion date: 18.02.2026

Abstract:

By employing various narrative techniques and artistic elements that enhance the text’s attractiveness and aid readers in comprehending its more profound aspects and mechanisms, postcolonial Maghrebi novels are a means of imaginatively altering stories. These novels also reflect political changes, ideological disputes within their cultural systems, and socioeconomic difficulties across all social contexts. Given the political and social conditions that the Maghreb peoples faced as a result of European colonisation, which drastically altered their social, economic, and cultural structures, this study aims to investigate the degree to which ideological conflict appears in Maghrebi fiction and how it depicts reality. It also draws attention to the uniqueness of artistic creativity that sets apart the Maghrebi novel, which has effectively shown the author’s awareness and comprehension of the real world by presenting it to the reader in a panoramic form that conveys both the reality of its writing and the imaginative Maghrebi fictional scene.

Keywords: Maghrebi novel, post colonialism, ideological conflict, artistic creativity.

Introduction:

Novelistic writing has taken a prominent place in literary and critical studies and has begun to dominate other forms of literary expression. This is because it is open to different kinds of art and storytelling, interacts with actual events and historical changes, and shapes them within a creative artistic framework in accordance with the characteristics of the book as an art form. In particular, postcolonial Maghrebi novelistic writing is an example of creative narrative transformation since it uses artistic forms and storytelling strategies to give the text an aesthetic quality meant to captivate the reader and emphasise their interaction with it. As well as its representations of social issues in all their social contexts, political transformations, and ideological conflicts within their implicit cultural systems—sometimes expressed through opposing themes, sometimes through overlapping ones—such as identity, patriarchal authority, Western colonialism, the conflict between self and other, centre and margin, and others—this is accomplished by exposing its internal structures and mechanisms of operation within its fundamental components.

Since the writer is a product of their surroundings, lives in their society, and is impacted by societal changes, they endeavour to communicate these issues to their readers in a creative and artistic manner, providing an imaginative formation that combines their realistic vision with fictitious tactics. Aware of the validity and significance of their writings in illustrating diverse socioeconomic class battles through their intellectual viewpoints, they freely communicate their own or others’ experiences through symbolic, suggestive language full of semantic meanings. Due to these and other factors, this novelistic writing has been able to take up a significant amount of space in Arab critical discourse and has become well-known because it is in line with the stakes of reality and the nature of the time.

Based on the aforementioned, this paper aims to analyse a few examples of postcolonial Maghrebi novels by a number of authors, including Abdelhamid Ben hedouga and Rachid Boudjedra from Algeria, Khalifa Hussein Mustafa from Libya, Mohamed Aroussi Al-Matwi from Tunisia, and Mohamed Berrada and Mohamed Choukri from Morocco. It does not purport to offer a thorough reading of these works. The objective is to investigate ideological conflict and the uniqueness of novelistic writing by posing several queries that can be summed up as follows:

•  How have different ideological disputes and their cultural expressions been portrayed in the Maghrebi novel?
• How does the postcolonial Maghrebi novelistic experience unfold, and what distinguishing creative qualities are present in its compositions?
•  How much of the novel’s realistic and imaginative aspects are shaped by the writer’s creativity and intellectual understanding in order to create a new, contemporary vision that deviates from the conventional novel model?
• The Issue of Conceptual Multiplicity and Ideology:

   The lack of a clear, complete, and widely accepted definition has left the term “ideology” characterised by ambiguity, complexity, and a variety of meanings. This is due to its occurrence across a wide range of critical theories and domains of knowledge, as well as its connections to a variety of semantic systems pertaining to doctrinal conflicts, political ideologies, social classes, sociological discourses, and philosophical concepts. As a result, its meanings have expanded in tandem with the variety of its orientations and the situations in which it functions. The term ‘ideology’ has conceptual plurality, which can be noticed and explained as follows:

It is defined as “the creation of a discipline concerned with ideas, studying them according to empirical scientific laws rather than abstract ones, based on Condillac’s theory of sensualist philosophy, which holds that ideas are rooted in sensations and that the mind is a vessel of sense” (Ailan, 2001, p. 11) by the French thinker Antoine Destutt de Tracy, a pupil of the renowned French philosopher Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, a student of the French philosopher of the Enlightenment Étienne Bonnot de Condillac.

“A system (with its own logic and precision) of representations (images, myths, ideas, or conceptions depending on the context) that possesses, within a given society, a historical existence and role,” according to Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, is what ideology is. Ideology is different from science as a system of representations because it prioritises its practical societal role over its theoretical (cognitive) purpose (Authors, 2006, p. 08).

From the viewpoint of Napoleon Bonaparte, who is credited as “the first to give the word a derogatory meaning… describing ideologists as dreamy people immersed in fantasy, detached from reality, and bitterly persecuting and mocking them, calling them the authors of illusory theories” (Ailan, 2001, p. 11), ideology also takes on a sarcastic meaning. He attempted to denigrate and mock ideologists because their ideas had begun to threaten his military authority and were incompatible with his interests. This was done in order to diminish their value and keep them out of control of society and the state.

Ideology is linked to false awareness in the Marxist perspective. It is “an inverted, distorted, partial, and truncated reflection of reality, which thus opposes true human consciousness,” according to the German philosopher Karl Marx (Ailan, 2001, p. 15). Although ideology was initially viewed as false consciousness, the Marxist viewpoint does not distinguish it from reality because it is associated with social classes that are governed by particular orientations and takes the form of various forms that are embedded in society and expressed in class struggle, including legal, political, religious, artistic, and philosophical ones. By considering it as a phenomenon influenced by social conditions according to various classes, this links ideology to the sociological idea. According to the Hungarian sociologist Karl Mannheim, utopia represents the governed class (the ideology of the lower classes), whereas ideology is associated with the ruling social class. He asserts that there are two types of societal ideals: ideological (the ideas of the dominant class) and utopian (the ideas of the governed class) (Ailan, 2001, p. 20). Consequently, ideology is never just a straightforward expression of the beliefs of the ruling class; rather, it is always a multifaceted phenomenon that may incorporate opposing and incongruous worldviews. Analysing the specific relationships that bind the various social classes together is necessary to comprehend ideology; this entails figuring out how these classes relate to the method of production (Eagleton, 1992, p. 14).

According to Moroccan novelist and thinker Abdallah Laroui, ideology is associated with three things: “a borrowed theory that is not yet fully embodied in the society from which it was borrowed, but which permeates it daily; an intellectual system that aims to conceal a reality that is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to analyse; and what is reflected in the mind from the state of reality in a distorted way due to the unconscious influence of the concepts used” (Laroui, 1995, p. 29). To put it another way, ideology stays ingrained in its cultural systems and does not deviate from human reality, whether it is stated officially or not.

Since the author is a product of their surroundings, there is a natural connection between literature and ideology. Their social context, with all of its outside influences, cultural systems, and individual experiences, forms the foundation of their cognitive processes. Literary works cannot just appear. Being a social phenomenon, language acts as a medium for the ideas found in literary works, which are full of conflicting ideologies and a variety of human experiences.  (Khadrawi, 2007, p. 187), “As a linguistic and artistic creation structured within a wide cultural framework, literature always produces an infinite series of meanings and connotations pertaining to the country’s imaginaries and cultural systems.” This does not, however, diminish the text’s authority or take away its poetical purpose or artistic and aesthetic qualities. Otherwise, it turns into an ideologically conflicted historical, social, or political document. Abdelaziz Hammouda, an Egyptian writer and critic, affirms this: “From the standpoint of cultural criticism, the text is transformed into something else—a document that, on the one hand, reflects dominant political and ideological values, and, on the other, serves as a starting point for reimagining and reconstructing those values within an ongoing cultural class struggle.” The text’s authority as a creative literary work was compromised on the day it took on all of these powers” (Hammouda, 2003, p. 270).

We shall try to focus on the essence of the postcolonial Maghrebian novelistic experience through ideological struggle, cultural representations, and creative specificity after attempting to analyse some ideas of ideology. To be clear, we will do the following:

2. The Postcolonial Maghrebian Novel: Ideological Conflict and Cultural Representations

As “a vessel into which are poured the ideas, desires, and feelings of humans in their struggle with their reality and environment,” the Maghrebian novel has dealt with social reality in all of its tensions, contradictions, and complexity (Abbas, 2005, p. 65). During various historical periods (the colonial period, post-independence, the civil war, etc.), the Maghreb countries underwent significant changes. (Eagleton, 1992, p. 16).

The book contains historical reality, but it is hidden and appears as a double absence. Since the literary work refers to ideological formations created by certain conditions rather than “specific situations”, it does not take history as its primary goal. Because the literature is a tapestry of meanings, perceptions, and reactions woven across its imaginative construction of reality, it thus alludes to history in an indirect manner.

A mosaic-like picture of Maghrebian society has been created by the numerous books that have been written on these social changes, political unrest, and ideological disputes within their respective cultural contexts. A wide range of topics are covered, such as identity, ideology, colonialism, revolution, Arabism, hunger, and the intellectual. Similar to this, novelists’ and their characters’ viewpoints, beliefs, and stances varied, particularly throughout the postcolonial era, which brought up a number of problems and difficulties typical of Maghrebian novelistic writing.

One of the most significant aspects is:

• The Dialectic of the Self and the other: the struggle between the self and the other, the infringement of the self’s rights through all kinds of injustice and tyranny, and the fact that power always stays in the hands of the powerful. By embracing the ideas of awareness, resistance, and struggle aimed at altering reality, protecting freedom, and attaining meaningful achievements, many books illustrate this dialectic and the domination of ideological inclinations through their vocabulary and conceptions. The following passage from Rashid Boujedra’s book Al-Tafakku (“Fragmentation”) makes this clear:

“How is your shift going this time? Are you okay? Our battle has had remarkable outcomes. Taher, they have to be saved. You are familiar with them. Inform them about poverty and exploitation (Boudjedra, 1982, p. 63).

The ideological differences between social groupings, as well as the ways in which social, intellectual, and environmental disagreement lead to conflict and confrontation amongst them, are also shown in this work. Nonetheless, the characters make an effort to blend in and adjust to their social surroundings for the benefit of shared interests. The following story illustrates how this is represented in Bouali’s personality and his opposing ideologies to those of the German character:

Late at night, Bouali sleeps on his bed with his garments drenched in perspiration and a fire and iron odour. After a few hours, he wakes up and hurries to open the door for the German, who comes to tell him stories and discuss his readings with the young guy, who is still sleepy and whose steps fail as the bells of stupor strike his skull. The listener at his side rushes to keep up with the German as he takes him by the arm and begins discussing fascism and communism. The German takes enormous leaps, and Bouali follows, sometimes lagging behind and other times keeping up with him. He doesn’t understand what he says since his mind is full of the German’s foaming soap, and he chastises him for his posture. Reiterating after interpretation and explanation: “No, you are never right.” Let them take advantage of us; all employees must be communists… it is their duty… holy! Bouali does not respond, allowing his feelings to burst out. Despite his distaste for the wealthy and foreign soldiers that prowl the streets with their guns and dogs (filthy Arab!), he loves him but does not comprehend him (Boudjedra, 1982, p. 50).

Class struggle and the difference in visions and orientations are also depicted in the novel: the wealthy and powerful class thinks it has the right to live, while the poor class is the targeted and vulnerable group that suffers from injustice, oppression, and misery as a result of class inequality and adopts a different ideology. Here are a few sample narrative passages:

• Tayeb, a character in Abdelhamid Benhedouga’s Al-Jaziyawa al-Darawish, who is imprisoned and remembers past agony, says:

“I open my eyes with my fingers to fill them with all the filth of the rich and the evils of the rulers… and I believe in what the weak, like me, believe” (Benhedouga, 1983, p. 12).

• In this monologue, Mabrouka, a character in Mohamed Al-Arousi Al-Matwi’s Al-Tut al-Murr, considers the terrible circumstances facing her family—the impoverished family of Sheikh “Miftah”—and how the wealthy Sayyid “Abdel Samad” family oppresses and marginalises them.

“Everyone saves money and is comfortable, except for the poor! For the others… It doesn’t seem fair. All day long, he works through immense adversity, sighing through his nerves and perspiring. And what does he get in return? He has a morsel to fill his stomach and a cloth to cover his body, while the fortunate are showered with wealth and good fortune. Sayyid Abdel Samad is quite boring. But he has a lavish and abundant lifestyle! He appreciates life’s pleasures and prosperity. Furthermore, he views us suffering on earth as his servants, punishing us with hard effort and paying us the least. He constantly brags, telling everyone that “without me, their bodies would be naked and their mouths would rot from hunger.” However, what authority does Sayyid Abdel Samad possess? And without such diligent, afflicted individuals, who are we? As they say, he wouldn’t have merited even a nibble of barley or a small amount of watercress if he had been left on his own. However, some people are fortunate to have access to sustenance” (Matwi, pp. 17,18).

Additionally, manifestations of cultural consciousness arise that demand a profound transformation of Maghrebian society in all its social, cultural, and political domains. It is believed that achieving independence is essential to solving issues pertaining to workers, especially peasants. For example, in Al-Shtar (“The Clever Ones”) by Mohamed Choukri, a Spanish colonial agent, the Pasha, uses a language of subjugation to address the peasants. This incites their ire and protests, and they eventually find their way to his home, where they learn that the Pasha and his Spanish wife fled to Spain via Tetouan and Ceuta, protected by the Spanish, even cutting off phone contact between Larache and Tetouan” (Choukri, 2000, p. 17).

The beginnings of peasant awareness are highlighted in this episode, which calls for a radical overhaul of social structures, the overthrow of traitors who live as masters while the poor working class lives as slaves, and the pursuit of independence in order to be free from colonial oppression and live in safety and harmony.

• Identity Crisis:

Along with the attempt to maintain identity as something that is “specific to the human being and to society, to the individual and to the collective,” this topic has been brought up frequently in Arabic novels in general and Maghrebi fiction in particular. “It is a purely human topic since it is the human person who experiences the contradiction, transcendence, or division between reality and the ideal, between the present and the past, between the present and the future, and between what is and what should be. He is the one who suffers from schizophrenia, and in him, alienation can replace identity. Identity is a manifestation of inner and personal freedom. Identity is a potentiality that might or might not be real. Existence is authentic if it is present; alienation results if it is not” (Hanafi, 2012, p. 11). Identity is a manifestation of inner and personal freedom. Identity is a potentiality that might or might not be real. Existence is authentic if it is present; alienation results if it is not” (Hanafi, 2012, p. 11).

The human self may experience despair, dissatisfaction, and fear of losing its very identity as a result of psychological and societal crises: “Whoever loses his identity loses his ability to move and to act.” He retreats from people in a state of contraction or shrinkage as the energy that propels him dissipates. Because identity is existence, he can feel lost. His existence no longer has a basis, and he might even end his life. An identity devoid of substance” (Hanafi, 2012, p. 25).

The illusory attraction to the culture of the Other and the wish to live in its environment of civilisation are further factors. In several books that deal with the issue of identity, this is clear, like in the passage “Tawfiq recalls what he saw and heard and imagines what he is about to undertake” from Far from the Noise, Close to Silence. He had previously been looking forward to going to France and assimilating into a new culture that, based on what he had read or the French people who used to visit the hospitality tents, appeared enticing to him. Al-Sadiqi, the father, told his son about the movement, but he was awestruck by France’s accomplishments and might and was not enthused about the demands. Since enrolling in the French lycée, Tawfiqhas been pulled to a new world and has been exposed to a different way of living than he had known since he was a young boy” (Berrada, 2014, p. 38).

• The Intellectual Between Presence, Absence, and the Search for Self:

By using the pen to defend individual freedom and national belonging, the intellectual (writer, journalist, media figure, etc.) demonstrates his existence as an active and effective character within his social and cultural surroundings. Thus, by his beliefs, ideas, and deliberate awareness-raising discourse, the intellectual represents freedom, struggle, resistance, the uncovering of colonial and authoritarian policies, and the quest for change. The struggle between this intellectual and authority, as well as the tactics used to rob him of his freedom, are reflected in the possibility that he will be subjected to repression, marginalisation, imprisonment, or even assassination in order to silence his voice and reveal what is hidden. Maghrebi fiction revealsthisthrough narrative passages like:

-“Professor Jeraidi, welcome. I hope you have changed your mind about planning protests and inciting disturbance against His Majesty’s government, regardless of the justification” (Mustafa, 1999, p. 275).
-“Welcome, how may I be of service to you, monarchy’s enemy? “I am considering setting aside a cosy room for you in this house of mine” (Mustafa, 1999, p. 515); in this case, “house” has to do with incarceration.

• The Postcolonial Maghrebi Novel and Its Creative Specificity:

Because of the traits and qualities that have given it its literary and critical standing, the novel is regarded as one of the most well-known and extensively researched literary genres by both authors and critics. Its creative specificity—through its symbolic language, artistic structures, semantic richness, and aesthetic values—remains a distinctive feature, despite the fact that it tackles social, political, and historical issues and ideological influences in accordance with the life circumstances that led writers to depict the urgent issues of their time, “The novel is a symbolic practice; through imagination it attempts to reconstruct reality and present it in the form of linguistic systems, and sometimes it tries in its structure to approach the construction of reality, that is, to imitate it.” (Khamri, 2002, p. 191)

Because of his interaction with and influence from the Western novel, the Maghrebi novelist has embraced modernity in his fictional texts and adopted an experimental approach to his artistic techniques, which has caused a qualitative shift in his writing and a departure from the conventional novelistic writing pattern. In spite of his involvement with social issues and problems, as well as his portrayal of a number of conflicts and crises, he was able to successfully combine fictional narrative imagination with referential reality in order to entice the reader to participate in a conscious critical reading that unravels its codes and symbols and reconstructs it from scratch. The following are some of the imaginative traits that set the Maghrebi novel apart and expose the authors’ novelistic experiences:

• The Use of Narrative Techniques:

With a heavy reliance on the flashback technique (retrospection), the interweaving of many temporal layers between the past and present, and jumps into the future (foreshadowing) to upset chronological order, these are demonstrated by breaking the linearity of time and fragmenting it. Additionally, there are numerous locations with their geometric shapes, symbolic meanings, and aesthetic qualities that are connected to the story’s characters or the narrator. Examples include the feeling of a humanising place, nostalgia and longing, or aversion and hatred toward particular locations due to the unpleasant memories they evoke. Much of contemporary Maghrebi fiction demonstrates this, including the works of Rachid Boudjedra, whose style Mohamed Sari praised for its genius, linguistic complexity, and textual structure, “He wrote with the affluent and the reader who works hard to read in mind. It is the school of al-Aqqad, the school of elaboration and craft, and Abu Tammam. His use of contemporary tactics, such as copious description, chronological distortion, narrative recurrence, and reliance on memory to recollect past events, makes his novels’ structure even more intricate and challenging than their language. Lastly, there isn’t a story in the conventional sense since Boudjedra, like Western modernist novelists, presents his worlds through tableaux rather than a cohesive narrative with a beginning, middle, and finish” (Sari, 2007, p. 98).

• Evoking Folk Heritage, Mythic Tendencies, and the Marvellous:

Since one of the primary motivations for “employing the local environment is to assert a specific identity in order to sever ties with the Western novel and to establish a novel with an Arab character in both form and content,” this is done in order to create a unique aesthetic artistic novel that aims to achieve an identity dimension” (Wattar, 2002, p. 218). This heritage-based reference highlights the characteristics of societies, their culture, and their beliefs through customs like chanting songs, holding communal feasts (zarda), offering sacrifices to obtain blessings to fulfil wishes, and asking a righteous saint for blessings. “Because creative and innovative interaction with reality and heritage in their various aspects can transcend achievements and open new doors for adventure and experimentation” (Yaktin, 2005, p. 209).

These narrative excerpts are a few instances taken from Abdelhamid Benhedouga’s book Al-Jazia and the Dervishes:

The dervishes’ yells increased, the zurna wept, the drums thundered, and the bull was killed. One of the dervishes was then given a splash of blood to read—to read the future inscribed in the bull’s frozen blood: dancing, trembling, the arrival of al-Jazia (Benhedouga, 1983, p. 88).

“Anyone who visits the seven saints with malice will not escape the wrath of their saints, and righteous prayers at their shrines make barren women fertile and marry off spinsters” (Benhedouga, 1983, p. 65).

Despite the associated myths and superstitions, hosting a zarda without a customary occasion that demands it creates a remarkable social phenomenon. Veils are removed, barriers are removed, and young men from the village frequently get the chance to see the veiled girls (Benhedouga, 1983, p. 65).

“But my tragedy is that I will not marry a lawful marriage in a modern age,” the narrator states through al-Jazia. A strange woman who read palms visited the family when I was a child. She predicted that my first husbands would not be legitimate—they would be illegal husbands—and that each of them would die when he believed that life had settled for him. She also predicted that I would consume a herb that grows in our mountain but no one knows about it, keeping me young until the day I marry legally. Then there will be a period of time when there is no sun, like night but not night. After all of my offspring from illegal marriages pass away, I shall be married after enduring their crises one by one. (Benhedouga, 1983, pp. 76,77)

• Linguistic Hybridisation:

In their fiction, many authors use many languages. For example, the Algerian novel frequently uses French terms and expressions, whereas Moroccan fiction, like that of Mohamed Choukri, frequently uses Spanish. Additionally, they could use colloquial language as a representation of society and its identity, conveying its truths and happenings as well as the cultural and social disparities amongst characters. This is clear in Maghrebi fiction, where languages (Algerian, Tunisian, Moroccan, etc.) differ depending on the setting.

• Multiplicity of Voices (Polyphonic Novel):

Since “the word in the text is a centre of attraction for many psychological, social, historical, and ideological relations, and the novel is a broad space characterised by linguistic diversity and sometimes socially organised discourse, along with a variety of individual voices,” the novel is no longer restricted to a single narrator or voice; instead, voices and narrators have multiplied” (Bakhtin, 1988, p. 11). The majority of contemporary Maghrebi books exhibit this diversity of viewpoints.

• The Autobiographical Formation of the Novel:

To reveal the past and let go of their anguish and sorrow, some novelists have combined their personal experiences with fiction and its creative forms. This fusion of autobiography and the novel is achieved through innovative storytelling strategies that aid in the creation of this textual composition. The novels For Bread Alone and The Rogues by Mohamed Choukri are two examples. The Rogues, according to the author himself, is the second section of his autobiography:

“To this day, I continue to visit cemeteries on a regular basis. I composed portions of several of my works, such as the first section of my autobiography, For Bread Alone, and what I’m writing now, in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic graves, particularly those in Tangier that date back to the eighteenth century” (Choukri, 2000, p. 94).
In order to comprehend the structure of autobiographical writing and its strategies for drawing in and retaining the reader, autobiographical discourse and novelistic discourse are interwoven, as are realistic narrative elements and fictional elements.

• Poeticisation of Narrative:

In order to break up the monotony of prose and provide artistic value, poetry lyrics are included in novelistic texts. For instance, in The Rogues, Mohamed Choukri included four free-verse poems that conveyed his inner feelings in a rich, symbolic, lyrical manner.

Conclusion:

Several noteworthy findings were drawn from the analysis of a few chosen postcolonial Maghrebi novel examples, including the nature of their genuine experiences, the way in which ideological disputes manifested themselves, and their innovative artistic experimentation. The most notable of these are as follows:

• Maghrebi fiction has sought to portray the stakes of lived reality, with its tensions and inconsistencies, in a mosaic scene that blends innovative storytelling with realism. By doing this, the reader is given the opportunity to interpret the work and becomes a second artist who actively participates in the creation of new texts.
• The Maghrebi novel has embraced new writing techniques, constructing fictional story worlds with unique temporalities, places, narrative languages, and linguistic hybridity. The development of mythological characters and the weaving of fantasy stories to give the text an aesthetic form are other examples of authors’ artistic and creative sense.
• No matter how closely the novel is tied to reality—Its creative artistic specificity is still prevalent and extremely important, demonstrating the creator’s capacity to delve into its depths, issues, social and cultural allusions, and ideological elements. Using metaphorical imagery, mythic elements, narrative language, semantic density, and fragmented time to highlight creativity and distinction in the novelistic text, the novel, one of the most all-encompassing literary and narrative forms, can absorb reality and interact with prevailing conditions through artistic and semantic formations that show the Maghrebi novelist’s skill in shaping his aesthetic experience.
• Accordingly, the Maghrebi novel has attained a special place in Arab literary criticism, as it has dealt with historical turning points, societal changes, and ideological influences, fusing aspects of human knowledge and creativity to accomplish a textual synthesis between subject matter and imagination.

List of Sources and Reference

FIRST: PRIMARY SOURCES

1. Khalifa Hussein Mustafa, Layali Najma (Najma’s Nights), Al-Dar Al-Jamahiriyya for Publishing and Distribution, Misrata, Libya, 1st ed., 1999.
2. Rachid Boudjedra, Al-Tafakkuk (Disintegration), novel, National Publishing and Distribution Company, Algeria, 2nd ed., 1982.
3. Abdelhamid Benhedouga, Al-Jazia and the Dervishes, National Book Institution, Algeria, n.d., 1983.
4. Mohamed Berrada, Far from the Noise, Close to Silence, novel, Dar Al-Adab for Publishing and Distribution, Beirut, 1st ed., 2014.
5. Mohamed Choukri, The Rogues, Dar Al-Saqi, Beirut, Lebanon, 4th ed., 2000.
6. Mohamed Al‑Aroussi Al‑Matwi, The Bitter Mulberry, novel, Arab Book House, Tunisia, n.d.

SECOND: References in arabic

• Ibrahim Abbas, The Maghrebi Novel: Formation of the Narrative Text in Light of the Ideological Dimension, Dar Al-Raed for Books, Algeria, 1st ed., 2005.
• Idris Al‑Khadrawi, Literature as a Subject of Cultural Studies, Judhour Publishing, Morocco, first ed., 2007.
• Hassan Hanafi, Identity, Supreme Council of Culture, Cairo, first ed., 2012.
• Hussein Khamri, the Space of the Imaginary: Approaches in the Novel, Ikhtilaf Publications, Algeria, first ed., 2002.
• Said Yaktin, From text to intertextualiy, An iltroduction to the aesthetics of interactive creativity, Arab Cultural Center, Casablanca- Beirut, 1st ed, 2005.
• Abd al-Aziz Hammouda, Escaping the Labyrinth, A study in the Authority of the Text, Word of Knowledge, a monthly cultural book series, National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters, Kuwait, 2003.
• Abdallah Laroui, Contemporary Arab Ideology, Arab Cultural Centre, Casablanca, 1st ed., 1995.
• Omar Ailan, Ideology and the Structure of Novelistic Discourse: A Socio-Structural Study in the Novels of AbdelhamidBenhedouga, Mentouri University Publications, Constantine, Algeria, 1st ed., 2001.
• Mohamed Riyad Wattar, Employing Heritage in the Contemporary Arabic Novel, Arab Writers Union Publications, Damascus, n.d., 2002.
• Mohamed Sari, the Ordeal of Writing: Critical Studies, Barzakh Publications, Algeria, n.d., 2007.

THIRD: TRANSLATED REFERENCES

1. Terry Eagleton, Criticism and Ideology, trans. Fakhri Saleh, Arab Institution for Studies and Publishing, Amman, n.d., 1992.
2. Various authors, Ideology, trans. Mohamed Sabila and Abdessalam Benabdelali, Philosophical Notebooks Series, Topkal Publishing House, Morocco, 2nd ed., 2006.
3. Mikhail Bakhtin, The Word in the Novel, trans. Yusuf Hallaq, Ministry of Culture Publications, Syria, 1st ed., 1988.