The aesthetics and politics of 'reading together' Moroccan novels in Arabic and French

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3979606
AutoresKarima Laachir (0000-0003-3309-0789, SOAS University of London, autor correspondente)
Ano2016
Volume21
Fascículo1
Páginas22-36
Data de publicação2016-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Journal of North African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1362-9387 • E-ISSN: 1743-9345
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13629387.2015.1084098
OpenAlexW2280661674
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas11
Referências citadas22

This paper attempts to break down the common practices of reading multilingual Moroccan novels, particularly Moroccan postcolonial novels in Arabic and French. I argue that dominant reading practices are based on binary oppositions marked by a reductionist understanding of language and cultural politics in Morocco. They place the Moroccan novel in Arabic and French in independent traditions with the presupposition that they have no impact on each other, thereby reifying each tradition. They also ignore the similar historical, social and cultural context from which these novels emerge, and tend to reinforce the marginalisation of the Moroccan novel within hegemonic single-language literary systems such as the Francophone or Arabic literary traditions. I advocate 'reading together' – or an entangled comparative reading of – postcolonial Moroccan novels in Arabic and French, a reading that privileges the specificity of the literary traditions in Morocco rather than language categorisation, and that considers their mutual historical, cultural, geographical, political, and aesthetic interweaving and implications

Aesthetics · Arabic · Art · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · French · Hegemony · Linguistics · Literature · Political science · Politics · Presupposition · Reading (process · Reductionism · Sociology · Caribbean and African Literature and Culture · Hispanic-African Historical Relations · History · Law · Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies · Philosophy