Moroccan Dreams: Oriental Myth, Colonial Legacy (International Library of Human Geography)

The book is organized around nine chapters, the first two based on secondary sources and historical material, while the other seven are focused on individual sites that, in our opinion, illustrate the present re-enactment of the colonial ‘Moroccan dream’. Clearly, we could have included more sites and more chapters, but it was not our intention to provide an exhaustive mapping of contemporary tourism in Morocco. Rather, we were interested in identifying a series of sites where the intersection between the colonial intervention and the present tourist trope was particularly intense. Thus, while Agadir or Chefchaouen, or even Casablanca, could have perhaps been included in these selections, they also represent other historical flows and trends in tourism that are not as relevant to our argument. By building this geographic archipelago of postcolonial tourism, we wanted to recall the ways in which Morocco is all too often presented by the industry and experienced by the visitor: as a colourful mosaic made of shining Moroccan fragments, wherein each city has a different ‘attitude’ and appeals to a range of potential traveller-consumers. These fragments, often disconnected spatially but also culturally, make sense only if recomposed within the tourist tableau of le Maroc colonial – the former French, now pan-European and broadly Western, projection of an alternative modernity. The structure of the book thus deliberately reflects these cultural mappings, adopted as a strategy in our ethnographic experiencing of Morocco ‘like a tourist’. Morocco has long been a mythic land, firmly rooted in the European imagination. For more than a century it has been appropriated by writers, artists and explorers such as Pierre Loti, Edith Wharton, Eugene Delacroix, Paul Bowles and Elias Canetti. In Moroccan Dreams, the authors explore the ways in which this legacy is being recreated for nostalgic consumption by those seeking the authentic experience of the orient. Taking the reader on a tour, both real and imaginary, to sites that form the quintessential Morrocan experience, including the capital city Rabat, the medina at Fez, Marakkech, the Kasbah, the desert, Tangier, and the gentrified colonial elegance of Essaouira, they unravel the elements that are so appealing about this imagined experience. Richly illustrated, Moroccan Dreams provides an enticing journey that will delight all those captivated by the culture and spatialities of the European colonial enterprise and all those enamoured of Morocco and its extraordinary geographies "Morocco has long been a mythic land, firmly rooted in the European colonial imagination. For more than a century it has been appropriated by travellers, explorers, writers and artists. It is just these images and imaginings that are now being reconstructed for nostalgic consumption. In Moroccan Dreams, Claudio Minca examines this aestheticised re-enactment of the colonial, exploring the ways in which Moroccans themselves have become complicit in the re-writing of their homes and lives. Richly illustrated, the book provides a fascinating journey that will engage and delight all those enamoured of Morocco and its extraordinary geographies."--Bloomsbury Publishing. Cover 1 Author biography 2 Endorsements 3 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 List of Illustrations 7 Acknowledgements 12 Preface 15 1. Yes, we conserve 26 2. Mosaïque 56 3. Lyautey’s Dream 99 4. Medina 129 5. La Place 158 6. Kasbah 188 7. Sahara 212 8. Mogador 242 9. Lighthouse 268 Finale 298 Notes 300 Bibliography 301 Index 314