DISCRIMINATION, ASSIMILATION, and CULTURAL IDENTITY in TAHAR BEN JELLOUN'S LEAVING TANGIER

Authors

  • Derya Emir Dumlupinar University, Western Languages and Literature Department, Turkey

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26417/ejser.v2i1.p25-33

Keywords:

Discrimination, Assimilation, Immigration, Cultural identity, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Leaving Tangier, Postcolonial Literature.

Abstract

In today's multicultural countries, cultural diversity, hybridity, assimilation, and cultural identity are key issues. By focusing on the problem of immigration and its inevitable traumatic results on the migrants, Tahar Ben Jelloun's Leaving Tangier fully presents Azel (the protagonist) and his acquaintances' search for identity in terms of history, religion, nationality and cultural identity. Tahar Ben Jelloun's Leaving Tangier is the story of a Moroccan brother and sister who are burning with the desire to migrate to Spain in order to attain better life. The accomplishment of their dreams actualizes at the cost of some compromises and sacrifices that end with the protagonists' physical, emotional failure, and annihilation. The winner of Prix Goncourt for La Nuit Sacrée (The Sacred Night) in 1987, a Moroccan novelist Tahar Ben Jelloun is one of the most prolific and important writers of the recent years. As a novelist and critic, Ben Jelloun artfully combines the fact and fiction, past and present, East and West in his works. in this respect, he creates multidimensional writings that can be read and interpreted from several perspectives. Tahar Ben Jelloun's Leaving Tangier (2006) presents the issues of "wounded childhood," "solitude," "displacement," and "alienation" both individually and collectively in the colonial history of Tangier. This study focuses on the issues of discrimination, assimilation, and cultural identity, experienced by the characters in the novel, resulting from the immigration of individuals from their homelands to Europe in order to find better life conditions.

References

Ben Jelloun, Tahar. (2009). Leaving Tangier. trans., Linda Coverdale New York: Penguin Books.

Ben Jelloun, Tahar and Guppy, Shusha. (Fall, 1999) “Tahar Ben Jelloun, The Art of Fiction.” The Paris Review, Vol. 41, Issue 152, pp. 40-62.

(March 1997). “Tangier: myths and memories.” in ed., Roy Malkin The Unesco Courier, pp. 10-14.

(August-September 1991). “Interview: Tahar Ben Jelloun.” in ed., Adel Rifaat The Unesco Courier, pp. 4-6.

“A Conversation with Tahar Ben Jelloun,” available on www.penguin.com/.../leaving-tangier/9780143, accessed on 10/05/2014.

Brandabur, A. Clare. (2010). “Colonialism and Orientalism: Images of Paul Bowles in Tahar Ben Jelloun and Mohamed Choukri.” Paper presented at 2010 Lisbon Conference.

Campbell, Neil. (2000). "Dialogic Encounters and Hybrid Routes in the Fiction, Travel Writing, and Translations of Paul Bowles." Transatlantic Studies, ed., Will Kaufman and Heidi Slettedahl Macpherson. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, pp. 171-185.

Levy, Michele. (2010). “Tahar Ben Jelloun: Leaving Tangier.” World Literature Today, Vol, 84, No. 1, p. 61.

Nice, Pamela. (2009). “Dreaming in Morocco.” in Elie Chalala, ed., AL JADID, Vol. 15, No. 61. p. 45.

Page Melvin E. & Sonnenburg, Penny M. (2003). Colonialism: An International Social, Cultural, and Political Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio.

Parekh, Pushpa N. & Jagne, Siga F. (1998). Postcolonial African Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Westport, CT, USA: Greenwood Press.

Pireddu, Nicoletta. (Fall 2009). “A Moroccan Tale of an Outlandish Europe: Ben Jelloun’s Departures for a Double Exile.” Research in African Literatures, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 16-36. DOI: 10.1353/ral.0.0180.

Walonen, Michael K. (2011). Writing Tangier in the Postcolonial Transition: Space and Power in Expatriate and North African Literature. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate Pub.

Downloads

Published

2014-12-26

How to Cite

Emir, D. (2014). DISCRIMINATION, ASSIMILATION, and CULTURAL IDENTITY in TAHAR BEN JELLOUN’S LEAVING TANGIER. European Journal of Social Science Education and Research, 1(2), 37–51. https://doi.org/10.26417/ejser.v2i1.p25-33

Issue

Section

Articles