New Literary Voices of the Moroccan Diaspora: Republic of Cousins

The highly-charged debate over Moroccos diasporic minorities in Europe has led to a growing interest in the literary production of these new Europeans. This comparative study is the first to discuss together a body of texts, including contemporary Judeo-Moroccan literature, written in French, Spanish, Catalan and Dutch, which have never been studied as a group.

Faced with such a variegated field of literary production, the aim of this book is not to tie individual works of literature to their national place of origin, but to re-conceptualize the idea of a Moroccan literature with regard to the transnational and multilingual experiences from which it arises. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical insights, from Fatima Mernissis concept of female subalternity to Abdelmalek Sayads principle of the immigrants absent history, this book allows for the re-evaluation of the relationship between migration and postcolonial literary studies. A careful analysis of the literary techniques used in the texts under scrutiny here highlights their poetic qualities, without bypassing their political relevance with regard to the intercultural relations between Morocco and Europe as they are presently unfolding across the Mediterranean, and beyond. See more