Imagined Communities in the Orient: Mapping New Definitions of Moroccan Spatiality through Western Travelogues

Imagined Communities in the Orient: Mapping New Definitions of Moroccan Spatiality through Western Travelogues

The portrayal of Morocco as an exotic location has often been related to the tradition of European Orientalism. From Daniel Defoe to Edith Wharton, the Western presence in Morocco has long been identified by means of several encounters, which has become a central attempt to identify and analyze the country as Oriental. Many of these encounters have resulted in diverse representations that have primarily framed Western ideas about the Oriental world. Morocco, which was identified as an international itinerary of early travelogues about North Africa, has long been a place of Western cultural anthropology and ethnographic surveys. In addressing new definitions of Morocco’s locales, this paper aims to show how the issue of spatiality is discussed through an Orientalist framework. Further, it introduces various narratives that have long stood as cultural and political discursive means. The paper tries to disclose the American nostalgic inclination towards a new age of empire, in which Morocco is imagined as a convenient apposite strategic setting to possess and meet specific ideological interests in the Arab world. To elaborate on the construction of new definitions of spatiality, this paper discloses insights about the following questions: How has Western identity been constructed through de-territorializing European and American ideals? How have some Moroccan locales been turned into international contact zones? This paper delves into these issues by positing a cultural studies approach, relying mainly on qualitative content analysis to rethink alternative possibilities of other perceptions.