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NEW BOOK: Moroccan Dreams – Oriental Myth, Colonial Legacy
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. It is the imaginations that are now still recreated for nostalgic consumptions of the Orient.
In Moroccan Dreams, the authors explore the ways in which this colonial legacy is being actively reconstructed. Taking the reader on a tour, both real and imaginary, to sites that form the quintessential Moroccan experience – including the capital city Rabat, the medina at Fez, Marrakech, the route of the Kashbahs, the desert, Tangier, and the gentrified colonial elegance of Essaouira – they unravel the elements that are so appealing about this imagined experience and examine the ways in which Moroccans themselves have become complicit in the enterprise.
Richly illustrated, this highly original book provides a fascinating journey that will engage and delight all those captivated by the culture and spatialities of the European colonial enterprise and all those enamoured of Morocco and its extraordinary geographies.
The authors of Morroccan Dreams are Prof. dr. Claudio Minca, head of the Cultural Geography group at Wageningen University, and dr. Lauren Wagner, assistant professor in Globalisation and Development at Maastricht University.