S. V. PROZHOGINA, Doctor of Philology, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences Such a phenomenon in modern literature as the work of Tahar Bekri (b.1951), an ethnic Tunisian Arab working in France at the University of Nanterre (where he teaches Arabic literature), is difficult to consider in terms of belonging only to one national literature. Indeed, who are they, today's numerous Maghreb writers and poets-Algerians, Moroccans, Tunisians who write both French and Arabic, North Africans by origin, and by vocation, as the classic of Moroccan literature Dries Schraibi (1926 - 2007) once told me - "just writers", "just poets"? One could answer that they are simply artists of the modern world, where everything is mixed up, where different peoples, nations, and languages coexist on the same territory, where the West and the East today are not so much civilizational, but rather political landmarks... However, Tahar Bekri, living in the West, constantly recalls in his work that he is a Tunisian, Maghrebin, "Mediterranean", because to this day he draws his inspiration from different sources, is filled with the pain of his native land, although no longer completely belonging to it, traveling around the world (he is often invited to numerous poetic events). festivals), learning about it and thus pushing the boundaries of their original, natural and" regional " conditionality, expanding the range of their impressions and feelings of modernity. But the native land is not only geography, it is also history, which shaped the fate of the poet, who in his youth knew the fate of a prisoner, a political prisoner, an exile, and a wanderer... Takhar Bekri's generation also had to fight for justice, although the era of national liberation struggle was already over at the time of his manhood. But even in his student days, life in the country was not easy, and young people, as today, resisted "evil and violence", reminding the authorities that the people will never accep ... Read more