Vitality And Dynamism: Interstitial Dialogues of Language, Politics, and Religion in Morocco's Literary Tradition

"Anti-colonial literature is not necessarily ‘combat literature’ as Fanon and Déjeux have both suggested in their own writings. While it is often combative, there is also anti-colonial literature that emphasizes the human and the humane rather than the oppositional and contentious; it cannot be fair to label all anti-colonial literature as combative, even if one were to expand the definition of “combat” to include peaceful struggles against oppression or dehumanization. This book suggests that the relationship between the West and the rest of the world has been imagined as a relationship of Self (the West) to Other (the rest of the world), ordered and bordered geographically by the whims of Europeans and creating a Center-Periphery paradigm. These invented boundaries of humanity serve to separate geographical sites, but more, they serve to enclose the Empire and exoticize other cultures. Boundaries are often spatial, but more often, they are related to relationships and colonialization."

Table of Contents:
Contents Preface Introduction. The Vitality of Tradition By Kirstin Ruth Bratt Chapter 1. How the West Was Won: The Arab Conqueror and the Serene Amazigh in Driss Chraïbi’s La Mère du printemps By Ziad Bentahar Chapter 2. Cultural Encounter in Moroccan Postcolonial Literature of English Expression By Mohamed Elkouche Chapter 3. Intersections: Amazigh (Berber) Literary Space By Daniela Merolla Chapter 4. Writing in the Feminine: The Emerging Voices of Francophone Moroccan Women Writers By Touria Khannous Chapter 5. Tactile Labyrinths and Sacred Interiors: Spatial Practices and Political Choices in Abdelmajid Ben Jalloun’s Fí al-Tufúla and Ahmed Sefrioui’s La boîte à merveilles By Ian Campbell Chapter 6. Monstrous Offspring: Disturbing Bodies in Feminine Moroccan Francophone Literature By Naima Hachad Chapter 7. Hegemonic Discourse in Orientalists’ Translations of Moroccan Culture By Naima El Maghnougi Chapter 8. The Countercultural, Liberal Voice of Moroccan Mohamed Choukri and Its Affinities with the American Beats By Anouar El Younssi Chapter 9. Khatibi: A Sociologist in Literature By Sam Cherribi & Matthew Pesce Chapter 10. Emigration and Quest for Identity in Laila Lalami’s Hope & Other Dangerous Pursuits, Akbib’s ‘The Lost Generation,’ and Fandi’s Alien … Arab … and Maybe Illegal in America By Ilham Boutob About the Authors