Bouraoui, Hédi

▪ Tunisian-Canadian poet and scholar

born July 16, 1932, Sfax, Tunisia

      Tunisian poet and scholar whose creative and critical works seek to illuminate the human condition and transcend cultural boundaries.

      Bouraoui specialized in English literature at the University of Toulouse in France and then, in the United States, received degrees in English and American literature at Indiana University and in romance studies at Cornell University. He later taught at York University, Toronto, and became a Canadian citizen in 1971.

      His scholarly publications include Créaculture I and II (1971), essays on comparative culture; Parole et action (1971; “Word and Action”), a language text; and Structure intentionnelle du ‘Grand Meaulnes': vers le poème romancé (1976; “Intentional Structure of ‘Grand Meaulnes': Toward the Poetic Novel”), a book of literary criticism on Alain-Fournier. Bouraoui published several volumes of French poetry: Musocktail (1966), Tremblé (1969; “Wavy”), Éclate module (1972; “Modulated Explosion”), Vésuviade (1976), Haïtuvois (1980), Vers et l'envers (1982; “Verse and the Reverse”), Arc-en-terre (1991), and Émigressence (1992). The usual focus of his poems is on the affinities of the peoples of his native North Africa with North Americans, Caribbeans, and Europeans. Bouraoui's vision is informed by wit, intellectual complexity, and, above all, compassion for mankind.

* * *