Roots and Crown (Notes in the Margins of a Tahar Bekri’s Poem)

Among the concepts that define the search for the meaning of existence, which are especially significant today for both the individuals and for the society as a whole, there are those of the Fatherland, and of the traditional values that oppose cosmopolitanism and the false understanding of “freedom of choice”.Self-identification is important for preserving oneself in the surrounding world. The Maghreb authors living in France, essentially in a foreign environment, work within the French culture’s space not only retaining their own identity, but also staying true to their native land, and preserving its image in their works. One of them is the Tunisian writer Tahar Bekri. He made a significant contribution to the literary Francophonie and has received multiple European awards from various academies of belles letters, but he still remains a well-known poet also in his native Tunisia. Bekri dedicates his work, like many other Maghreb writers, to his Fatherland, which feeds his poetry with hopes for freedom and for oases of intense spiritual culture. He likens his poetry to the metaphor of the Tree of Life, a Tree that preserves the crown and the roots, as well as the steadfast trunk.

Maghrebians in the West, Francophone literature, Tahar Bekri, the Tree of Life as metaphor of literary creativity