Overview

British Travel Writers in Morocco, 1856–1937: Discursive Encounters reflects the growing academic interest in travel writing as a literary genre shaped by colonial and imperial motivations that transcend both literary canons and geographical boundaries. The book offers a compelling overview of British travelogues about Morocco during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, providing new insights for Maghrebi and postcolonial studies. Owing to its interdisciplinary nature, the travelogue genre surpasses traditional borders to present elaborate and critically engaging accounts of the various, though often asymmetric, physical and discursive encounters that occurred during both the pre-colonial and colonial periods. The critical and intellectual significance of this genre is informed by post-structuralist, colonialist, and modernist theories – with their diverse analytical tools – as well as by the postcolonial commitment to interrogate colonial legacies and archives. The book analyzes a group of texts written by British travellers in Morocco between 1856 and 1937, including Walter B. Harris, Robert S. Watson, Joseph Thomson, Hugh Stutfield, Frances Macnab, and Richard C. Woodville, among others. These travel writers provide substantial and heterogenous accounts that meticulously record, describe, and translate the constitution and evolution of Britain’s cultural imaginary and consciousness of Morocco, its ‘dissemiNation’ of human civilisation, and its imperial ambitions, assumptions, and rhetoric.

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9781805966753

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Reviews

‘Most previous work on European travel writing in Morocco has limited our understanding of the genre to the French-language tradition. With British Travel Writers in Morocco, 1856-1937, Lahoucine Aammari provides a refreshing intervention that challenges this tendency. In the book, he foregrounds an important but previously neglected corpus of English-language material by British travellers. The result is a highly significant intervention, essential reading for scholars and students of travel writing, of colonial history and of the Maghreb more broadly. The study greatly enhances our understanding of Anglo-Moroccan relations in the colonial period. It also extends our knowledge of the role of the travel genre in processes of intercultural contact as well as of inter-European rivalry. Aammari is exemplary in his historicization and broader contextualization of the texts he studies. In this vivid analysis, the authors emerge as observers, as commentators, as propagandists – and ultimately as translators of Morocco to audiences back at home.’ Charles Forsdick FBA, Drapers Professor of French, University of Cambridge ‘British Travel Writers in Morocco, 1856-1937: Discursive Encounters is a compelling and theoretically sophisticated account of travelogues by the British consular agents, missionaries, journalists, tourists, entrepreneurs, geographers, artists, settlers and chancers who poured into Morocco in significant numbers following the “General Treaty between Great Britain and Morocco” of 1856 which established British economic influence and its cancelation in 1937. We are introduced to the eager and evangelical reformers who wrote home about a savage land in need of British Christian civilisation and manufactured goods, and to those who disagreed, arguing that wealth extraction was more efficiently achieved by leaving things as they were. And we meet romantic travellers who, regretting the progression of modern industrial civilization, deplored British imperial policies and enthusiastically greeted the arrival of the French and Spanish Protectorates after 1912 which they thought would finally bring political stability and progress. Informed by recent advances in post-colonial theory, Aammari unravels and reveals the multiple interests and perspectives that shaped how British travellers viewed and (mis-)represented Morocco and its culture while admiring the variety and beauty of the land. Besides contributing to our understanding of Anglo-Moroccan relations, this study also illuminates Mediterranean history more generally in a fascinating period of European imperialism in incipient decay.’ - Gerald MacLean, Emeritus Professor of English, University of Exeter ‘Professor Aammari’s book is illuminating and offers many valuable insights into British travel narratives about Morocco.’ - John Fisher, Senior Lecturer in International History, University of the West of England ‘Lahoucine Aammari's British Travel Writers in Morocco, 1856-1937: Discursive Encounters fills a significant gap in the scholarship of British travel writing and postcolonialism. By focusing on Morocco, a region often overlooked by Anglo-American academics, Aammari offers a fresh comparative analysis of travel texts that have received limited attention. Addressing a wide range of themes and perspectives previously unexplored, Aammari’s insightful book not only deepens our understanding of this period but also calls for a more nuanced and expansive engagement with these travel accounts in Postcolonial Studies.’ - Ali Behdad, John Charles Hillis Professor of Literature at UCLA and author of Belated Travelers: Orientalism in the Age of Colonial Dissolution

Author Information

Lahoucine Aammari is Professor of English and Cultural Studies at Sidi Mohamed ben Abdellah University, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Dhar El Mahraz, Fes. He teaches cultural studies, postcolonial studies, and travel writing, and he has published many articles in these fields.

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