Abstract
Thanks to its geographical location at the intersection between continents and cultures, Morocco has always been a stage for cross-cultural encounters. Despite its geographical proximity to Europe, Morocco, however, is culturally distant to the Western subject and its exotic allure has always been irresistible. While many 19th and early 20th century travel accounts on Morocco were highly orientalist in their (mis)representation of space and race in Morocco, Alice Morrison’s My 1001 Nights: Tales and Adventures from Morocco seem to introduce a new pattern of cultural representation in which the Western traveler witnesses from within not from above. This paper demonstrates how Alice Morrison steps down from the ventage position occupied by most Western writers on the Orient and intermingles with people in an attempt to understand her Moroccan cultural Other. Morisson’s travel narrative, therefore, dismantles not only the misrepresentations of Morocco and Moroccans but also the ethnocentric and egocentric Western discourses on alterity.
Recommended Citation
EL KAIDI, Youssef
(2024)
"Alice Morrison’s My 1001 Nights: Tales and Adventures from Morocco
Seeing from Within Not from Above and Preaching Cross-cultural Appreciation,"
Soroud: The journal of Literacy Criticism: Vol. 7:
Iss.
1, Article 8.
Available at:
https://scholarhub.univh2c.ma/soroud/vol7/iss1/8