National novel in modern Tunisian literature: The case of Muhammed el-'Arûsî el-Matvî

The 18th century stands out as a period that French colonialism dominated North African countries, including Tunisia. The colonial administrations that France established in these countries, not only established oppressive regimes by exploiting the resources of them but also became the driving force of some developments in the field of literature. In this period, the Arabic novel, which first started in the modern sense with Egypt, continued its development with the Algerian, Tunisian and Moroccan novel. The national novel samples, which constitute a part of the Tunisian novel, have been a natural part of the development in this field. Considered the pioneer of the Tunisian national novel, Muhammed al-Arusi al-Matvî articulated the feelings of his country and its people, and perhaps millions of people who have been exposed to the same situation in similar geographies. The Tunisian novel, constituting a part of the modern Arabic novel, stands out as a field that deserves to be studied by being a part of Arabic literature in particular and world literature in general. In this study, the examples of the National Novel, which can also be called anti-colonial novel with a categorical approach emerged in Tunisian literature, were emphasized. The Muhammed al-'Arûsî al-Matvî's novels named et-Tûtu'l-Murr, Halîme and Ve Mine'd-Dahâyâ were evaluated in terms of novel analysis arts on one hand; attention was drawn to their national character on the other hand.