Bones on the Sand: Social Criticism in Mohamed Zafzaf’s “Skeletons”

Abstract

his article presents the translation and analysis of the short story “Skeletons” (Hayakil ‘Adhamiyya), by Mohamed Zafzaf, one of the leading figures of 20th-century Moroccan literature in Arabic. Published in the 1978 collection The Strongest, the story is examined in light of the historical context of Zafzaf’s literary production, marked by Morocco’s so-called “Years of Lead” and the emergence of the cultural magazine Souffles-Anfas. The article proposes that this may be one of Zafzaf’s earliest texts to explore the beach setting, anticipating by a year his celebrated novel The Viper and the Sea (1979), with which it shares several elements, including the use of adjectives directed at the female body and the treatment of moral issues. Drawing on statements by the author himself, the article further suggests that the coastal setting described alludes to the city of Essaouira in the 1970s and 1980s — located on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, south of Casablanca and west of Marrakesh — which was then known as a refuge for “marginalized” anti-establishment figures from around the world.