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Thèse
FLORES, Andrea The Writing of Space in the Moroccan narrative, 1968-1983. (L'écriture de l'espace dans la fiction marocaine, 1968-1983.). | | Lieu : Harvard University,
Directeur de thèse : Tom Conley & Susan Suleiman,
Année : 1999
Pages : 269 p.
Type : Thèse - Ph. D
Langue : Anglais.
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Notations : Abstract:
"The Writing of Space in the Moroccan Narrative (1968-1983)" takes up the re-production of cultural spaces in Moroccan literature written in French during the postcolonial years. "Cultural spaces" are, in part, defined through the identification of spatially and culturally inflected idioms: Arabic, French, English, Spanish and Berber. "Cultural spaces" are additionally understood by way of the practices taking place within discrete parts of the contemporary Moroccan city: the mosque, the home, the medina and the ville-nouvelle. Generally, social space is considered
through its relations of production and is invented as opposed to being "given" and stable.
The literary deployment (or tactical uses) of these languages and cultural practices extracts them from their antagonistic definitions and constitutes what can be explained in terms of the minoritarian expression
of cultural identity. Ontological and linguistic sites, rather than being opposed, become paths by which authors engage in a politicized process of redefining visions of the home space. "Western" and "Muslim" literary references and cultural practices are mutually interrogated as homogeneous (and dominant) cultural entities; each becomes a tool for the questioning of the "dominant posture" both cultures attempt to assert in different ways, one in colonizing, the other in reaction. The way in which the West is "included" in the production of local culture is a delicate endeavor.
An intuitive reaction to this development is often articulated as a return to tradition and authenticity. I argue that through this literature a hybrid cultural identity is being forged and articulated by local intellectuals.
The theoretical work of Homi Bhabha, Michel de Certeau, Abdelwahab Meddeb, Abdelkebir Khatibi, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari come to bear on the demonstration of an affective and subjective, yet historically
marked re- mapping of Moroccan cities through literature. Novelists analyzed include Mohamed Khar-Eddine, Mohamed Choukri, Abdelkebir Khatibi, Abdelfattah Kilito, Abdelwahab Meddeb and Tahar Ben Jelloun. (Choukri has been taken up by way of the French translation of Le pain nu which was published before the Arabic version.) Three transcribed interviews that address the work in the dissertation are appended to the thesis: Abdelhak Serhane, Abdelwahab Meddeb and Mohamed Choukri.
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