Moroccan literature of the Years of Lead is a very interesting case of literature and
law relationship. Moroccan society is still anchored to the past; nevertheless, it is
crossed by radical political changes, in particular as far as the attention towards
human rights is concerned. While from a legal perspective Ali Mezghani has referred
to the Arab countries as an instance of “unfinished State”, from a literary
point of view a distinction should be drawn between the historical moment of
the Years of Lead in which young activists were imprisoned (Seventies) and the
cultural moment in which these years’ experience resurfaced (Nineties). Writers,
testimonies, interviews, films are all revolved around the same need to deal with
a past which has been forgotten too often and by too many. The analysis of some
of the most significant literary works of this period allows us to connect the writers’
fictions with their desire to build a future while positioning themselves in
relation with a society they perceive as detached from themselves. Writing, then,
becomes an elaboration of an endless mourning in which the acceptance of loss
does not always turn into a composition of the modern citizen.