Title
Un reino tan lejano: Yudis, Shahrazad, and the Imaginary Space in the Contemporary Hispano-Moroccan Novel
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Fall 2017
Abstract
Ahmed Daoudi’s 1994 novel El diablo de Yudis and Montserrat Abumalham’s 2001 novel ¿Te acuerdas de Shahrazad? each employ unique narrative framings in order to create literary encounters that utilize imagined space to decenter notions of hispanidad, disrupt binaries of center/periphery, and reconceptualize literary models of transcultural expression. The current project undertakes a literary analysis of the creation of space and voice in these two works and will show how Daoudi and Abumalham structure their narrative in ways that evidence a preoccupation with transnational identities and the agency and potential of peripheral voices. Their unique fictional worlds and the employment of imaginary Thirdspaces make possible narratives that consciously reject limiting binaries. The theoretical work of Henri Lefebvre, Edward Soja, and Fatema Mernissi contributes to the analysis of space and alterity. Lefebvre’s spatial trialectic and Soja’s conceptualization of the Thirdspace serve to analyze and articulate the creative power of these two novels.
Recommended Citation
Mahan L. Ellison. “Un Reino Tan Lejano: Yudis, Shahrazad, and the Imaginary Space in the Contemporary Hispano-Moroccan Novel.” Research in African Literatures, vol. 48, no. 3, 2017, pp. 98–115.