Morocco through the lenses of four French writers

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to examine how Morocco is represented in the works of Jean and Jérome Tharaud, Henry de Montherlant and Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio. More specifically, the paper attempts to develop a more nuanced vision of how Morocco is viewed in French travel writing than what previous studies (mainly those adopting the Saidian approach) suggest. Indeed, since Edward Said’s Orientalism was published in 1978, French literary representations of Morocco have generally been examined in terms of their engagement with the French imperial establishment. This paper focuses on the images of Morocco in the works of the four selected writers to offer a new conceptualization of French Orientalism, one that can be considered as both an application and a criticism of Said’s Orientalism. The outcome of the analysis shows that while the Tharauds’ views of Morocco are marked by the same racism and imperialism Said talks about, Montherlant’s and Le Clézio’s views of the country seem to subvert traditional clichés and stereotypes, providing two paradigms of a Western portrayal of the Orient that go against Said’s study of Orientalism. It is therefore argued that the French literary construction of the Orient (Morocco in this case) is neither completely racist and imperialist as Said and the saidists pretend, nor completely objective and innocent as the Orientalists would have us believe. French Orientalism, as conceptualized in this paper, contains a mixture of different views and attitudes. Hence the use of the plural form ‘Lenses’ instead of the singular ‘Lens’ in the title.

KEYWORDS:

• Orientalism
• Edward Said
• discourse
• Morocco
• French colonialism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Jean and Jérome Tharaud’s trips to Morocco are published in three travel accounts. Rabat ou les heures marocaines (1918), Marrakech ou les seigneurs de l’Atlas (1920) and Fès ou les bourgeois de l’Islam (1930).

2 All translations from French into English are mine.

3 This concept describes how the ruling class use cultural institutions to main its rule over the subordinate classes. According to Gramsci, although those in power can achieve social control in two different ways: domination and hegemony, the former is used only when the latter fails. When the ruling class establishes the consent of the ruled people successfully, oppression and force are no longer needed. Following Gramsci, Said asserts that European colonialism relies much more on the consent of Orientals than on the use of direct force to subdue them. This is to mean that instead of imposing their political and economic policy by force, European powers induce in the minds of the colonized a set of ideological ideas and beliefs which function to manufacture their consent and approval.

4 Ram’s automatic docility should not be taken as a conclusive sign of her submission and passivity. Although she never objects to Auligny, she does not incarnate the image of submission commonly employed in colonial texts. Indeed, when Auligny expresses his desire to take her away with him, the apparently submissive woman asserts herself. Although he tries hard to convince her to go with him, the previously passive Ram refuses categorically. She reveals a determination to stay with her parents which Auligny is unable to change. Therefore, despite Ram’s previous passivity, she eventually proves herself to be the master of her own destiny. She, therefore, can be said to finally break away from the traditional image of the Oriental woman as always passive and submissive.