Identity and belonging in Spanish-Moroccan literature

• Main Author: El Akel, Nesrine
• Other Authors: Bonaddio, Federico ; Weiss, Julian Michael ; Munoz Sempere, Daniel
• Published: King's College London (University of London) 2018
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.762388

This thesis examines literature written in Spanish by Moroccan authors and Spanish authors with a Moroccan background. It includes the study of literature produced in colonial and post-colonial Morocco, as well as that which was produced in Spain after the first migration flux of the late 1980s. The thesis is in three parts. The first considers the influence, impact and heritage left by the Spaniards during their time in Spanish Morocco (1912-1956). It examines how the Protectorate cultivated in Moroccans a sense of belonging in respect of the Hispanic world and how this is reflected and eventually challenged in local literature. A central motif in this period is Al-Andalús, which helped create an imaginary homeland for Moroccans that transcended national borders. The second part turns its attention to matters of postcolonial identity. Covering the period from the moment of Moroccan independence in 1956 until the present, it examines writers’ need to reclaim a specifically Arab identity in the wake of their colonial past. In this context, we consider how writers negotiate notions such as modernity and tradition, and how the sense of identity which they convey in their work is informed by or defined against social, cultural and political realities, especially in the treatment of sex and sexuality. The third and final part of the thesis investigates the period from 1990 onwards, which corresponds to possibly the most productive time for literature written by Moroccans in Spanish (or indeed Catalan, since Catalonia was the destination for many migrants in the 1980s). Considering the literature produced both by Moroccans who had settled in Spain and those still writing from Morocco and from the Spanish enclaves, it explores the dominant themes of the time, such as immigration, double identities, cultural betrayal and belonging, with a view to understanding how writers assert their multiple identities through their work and against the background of misconceptions about what it means to be Spanish or Moroccan or both.