The 1948mallahof Casablanca

Viewing Moroccan (trans)national sentiment through juvenile trauma

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3979596
AutoresSamir Ben-Layashi, Samir Ben‐layashi (Tel Aviv University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2014
Volumen19
Número4
Páginas587-601
Fecha de publicación2014-08-08
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Journal of North African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1362-9387 • E-ISSN: 1743-9345
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13629387.2014.946348
OpenAlexW2099138468
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas18

Based on an unpublished memoir about the life of a seven-year-old Moroccan Jewish child in the 1940s in the mallah (Jewish quarter) of Casablanca, this article examines the traumatic dimension of a child's memory vis-à-vis the precarious social milieu and the instability of the political street at the time. The article draws a parallel between the deterioration of the protagonist's mental and physical health during 1948 and political and social events relating to the formation of Moroccan national sentiment in Casablanca. It details the contradiction between the official narrative and the 'homey narrative', the impact of news and rumours about the war in Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel, and how the formation of a (trans)national politico-religious sentiments among the Jews of Casablanca and Purim festivities coincided with all these events and reflected their uncertainty. The protagonist's mental 'crisis' is analysed through concepts used in Deleuze and Guattari's metaphor of a 'body without organs' known as 'BwO', where schizophrenia is not connected to either an Oedipus complex or the libido; instead, it is related to the world's (dis)order and stems from the repressive social, political, and economic conditions of the milieu in which the 'subject-patient' is living

Art · Contradiction · Judaism · Literature · Memoir · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Gender Studies · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Middle East Politics and Society · North African History and Literature · Philosophy · Psychology