Negotiating spaces of fear in Tahar Ben Jelloun’s migrant writing | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Volume 26, Issue 1-2
  • ISSN: 1368-2679
  • E-ISSN: 1758-9142

Abstract

This article examines how dystopic Moroccan urban societies generate a culture of fear that produces the fantasy of fleeing and how this fear sustains the dynamic acts of nomadism. It deploys postcolonial utopianism and psycholinguistics to study how Ben Jelloun’s ‘postmodern nomads’ and exilic subjects negotiate the spaces of fear in and . The essay goes further to show how these psychosocially alienated characters use attitudinal lexemes to indexicate the fearful episodic memories of their original and foster loci. In both novels, repressed fear remains an essential catalysing element for the psycholinguistic construction of the utopian imagination for the desired spaces of Europe. Social dreaming is, nevertheless, the cord that binds illusion with reality and transforms the postcolonial subject’s fear into faith for a better tomorrow. The study concludes that Ben Jelloun’s migrant writing illustrates migrant and exilic subjects who negotiate all spaces of fear that are gendered, transcultural and transnational.

Résumé

Cet article examine comment les sociétés urbaines marocaines dystopiques génèrent une culture de la peur qui produit le fantasme de fuir et comment cette peur soutient les actes dynamiques du nomadisme. Il déploie l’utopisme postcolonial et la psycholinguistique pour étudier comment les ‘nomades postmodernes’ et les sujets exilés de Ben Jelloun négocient les espaces de la peur dans et . L’article va plus loin pour montrer comment ces personnages psycho-socialement aliénés utilisent des lexèmes d’attitude pour indexer les souvenirs épisodiques effrayants de leurs lieux d’origine et d’accueil. Dans les deux romans, la peur refoulée reste un élément catalyseur essentiel pour la construction psycholinguistique de l’imaginaire utopique des espaces désirés de l’Europe. Le rêve social est néanmoins le cordon qui relie l’illusion à la réalité et transforme la peur du sujet postcolonial en foi en un avenir meilleur. L’étude conclut que l’écriture migrante de Ben Jelloun illustre des sujets migrants et exilés qui négocient tous les espaces de peur à la fois genrés, transculturels et transnationaux.

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2024-02-22
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