Beyond Language Determinism: Multilingual Literary Traditions in Morocco

Linguistic and cultural diversity in the Maghreb have not been explored adequately in the field of literary and cultural studies. This paper raises the problematic separation of the Moroccan novel written in Arabic and French in literary and critical studies. It provides a critique of the way Moroccan novels in French have been excluded from the literary field of Arabic literature despite their strong affiliation with the cultural history of Arabic literature. In the field of Francophone studies, the focus on Moroccan novel in French has completely excluded Moroccan novels in Arabic which has resulted in a shallow conception of the transmitted cultural heritage and in obscuring the cultural histories from which these texts emerge. It also obscures the "cohabitation" of French with other languages in the region (Dobie 2003: 33). This paper argues against these dominant reading practices that are based on linguistic determinism as they have contributed to the marginalisation of Moroccan literary traditions within dominant literary systems such as the Francophone/French or Arabic traditions and therefore, have obscured the cultural, linguistic and historical entanglement of these multilingual literary traditions.