Keywords: contemporary Moroccan fiction, Fatuma by Gerrary Benabdenby, the story "The Air of a Woman", the formation of female identity

The Air of a Woman " * is the first novel in Moroccan literature written by a woman who allowed herself to talk about what it means to become a truly female identity and understand her role in life. In the title of the story, written in French (Souffle de femme), there are many shades: this is "a woman's breath", and "the air that a woman breathes", and "a woman's breath", as a confession about the life she lives. The book recreates the atmosphere of this women's life and even the very aroma of it...

But the meaning of the author's nuance is the same: to capture the trace of his, female, presence on earth, the moments of his appearance, flourishing, maturing hopes, his understanding of the purpose of a woman in this world - the wounds of the soul, the pain of unrighteous offenses, the joy of love, the responsibility for the opportunity to give birth to a new life, to convey his awareness of the fragility of" unshakable " traditions, the dangers of the daily maelstrom...

The confession of the" honest heart " becomes a special signal to the reader: it is important to hear its beating, see a special world, open the veil over the female half of it and fill the surrounding life with its breath, let it into the souls of others and fill them with kindness...

"I am entering the path of the word. And my words will become an endless wandering between victories and defeats, a mixture of laughter and tears, an infusion of strength and weakness, filled with joy and bitterness of priceless moments of happiness and pain, light and darkness... " - so begins his story of Fate by Gerrary Benabdenby.

We publish fragments of one of the parts of the story - "To be born again and learn the essence of things", where the heroine, entering adulthood, appears as an already formed personality, ready to accept the challenges of fate.

The reader will notice that the narrative is neither in the first person nor in the third person: it is like a dialogue between the heroine and herself, a confession to herself. And maybe a dialogue with the mother... But the "you" that stands in memories, in reflections, is addressed to the universal feminine principle, the omniscient Fate, destiny, reality. And so the private life story captured by the author is both an example of the modern existence of Moroccan women, and a lesson in the universal history of their existence.

And even a kind of hymn to life.

S. V. PROZHOGINA, Doctor of Philology, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

* Fattouma Djerrari Benabdenhi. Souffle de femme. Maroc, EDDIF, 2000.

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