An interview with researcher Fouad Azrawal about his latest publication
Fouad Azroual is a playwright, storyteller, and researcher in the Amazigh language. He comes from the city of Nador, where he was born in 1964. He published a group of dramatic and short-story creations starting in 1991, and won the Best Dramaturgy Award at the National Amazigh Theater Festival in Agadir in 2005, and the National Award for Amazigh Culture - Creativity Category in 2005. 2011 for his collection of short stories (Adhafal Azkawa/Red Snow). He also published a group of studies in the field of Amazigh literature and arts, the most important of which are: (Contemporary Amazigh Literature), (On Amazigh Literature and Art), and (Laughter in Amazigh Culture)... He works as a researcher at the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture, at the Center for Artistic Expressions, Literary Studies and Audiovisual Production. He finally published, at the end of 2023, his second collection of short stories (Ildjikin Aur Kamen The Takerst/Flowers Do Not Grow in Winter), constituting a qualitative addition to the modern Amazigh narrative work.
?What addition can your new publication bring to the field of the art of the Amazigh short story
Any new publication, by any creative writer in the field of Amazigh narrative, at this stage, is considered - in itself - a quantitative addition to the new Amazigh narrative achievement in the first place, and it - must also - bear the special imprint of its creator, thus contributing to achieving a qualitative addition. like that. As for my latest collection of short stories, I tried to write their stories based on my own awareness of the literary genre of fiction, its components and requirements, and based on my conviction of the necessity of creating a special style that is different from the styles of other creators. I also took great care - in this collection - to work on selecting story themes close to the themes that dominate in the contemporary narrative arena, even though they all discuss the issue of death in its various dimensions and human and existential connotations, and I tried not to fall into stereotypes, or to rush writing. I paid close attention to the aspects of each story in the collection, starting with the language and style, then the angle of treatment of the topic, and the method of constructing characters, places and spaces... I sought - with all my might - to achieve innovation and experimentation to avoid repeating the methods, forms and themes prevailing in the new Amazigh narrative.
?How did you shape your story world in this latest collection? What is the role of the cultural environment in this
The narrative world that dominated the creations of this group is inspired - for the most part - by the real and realistic world in which I live, as I have drawn inspiration from it many characters, events and spaces, but I am not satisfied with just translating it narratively, rather I reshape and formulate it with great freedom to make a world out of it. Something new that moves away from the usual and well-known. It is thus a close world full of vocabulary from the Amazigh cultural environment in which I grew up, and among imaginations and innovative images that can be attractive and enjoyable.
?What are the linguistic and artistic standards that you adhere to in your stories
The language in storytelling is like the air in which the tale or story lives and grows. The more pure and sophisticated its meaning is, the more sophisticated and smooth the narrative or story will be. That is why I tried to rely on words and phrases that carry a sufficient amount of power to influence the conscience and feelings, and to convey meanings and ideas without falling into simplification and flatness. And if the language plays a major role in building the narrative work, the artistic level participates in that and enhances it, and therefore I also sought to achieve an acceptable and attractive level in artistic construction, taking into account sufficient accuracy and coherence in the sequence of events, and in the depiction of events and characters, and I paid great attention to achieving an appropriate and unexpected ending, so as to achieve a kind of aesthetic distance.
?What is different about this collection of yours from the rest of what other storytellers write in Amazigh
I tried to write in more than one technique and style: fantastical, detective, symbolic, psychological... in order to distance myself from the classical writing that dominates Amazigh narrative creativity, which tends - in most cases - towards the style of the popular story... I tried to write in a way that sometimes shocks and arouses astonishment. Sometimes astonishment, and other times it provokes the mind and its certainties... The group’s stories talk about all kinds of violent and strange death that expose contemporary civil life, expose its falsity and hypocrisy, and that occur in celebrated spaces, different places and times.
?How do you see the reality of the Amazigh short story today
Amazigh short story writers are still few, and they are making great efforts to publish and publish what they write, and to respond to the great expectations placed on them for the advancement and advancement of Amazigh literature. In general, there is an emerging narrative movement, and it needs support and support to develop and grow quickly.
Achieved by: Moha Mkhleis
Source : websites