Maghrebi Migrants and Writers: Liminality, Transgression and the Transferal of Identity

Abstract

Migration research has generally neglected the individual, sacrificing him/her to macrosociological analyses. Some anthropologists, however, offer more analytically productive frameworks within which to comprehend the migrants’ experiences by considering them in terms of hybridity and liminality. I argue for the insight recognition of a liminal imaginary may bring to an understanding of transnational North African’s experiences by exploring the novelistic space-time constructed and shared by Francophone Maghrebi authors, including Tahar Ben Jelloun and Mehdi Charef. Recognizing in the Moroccan context the pertinence of a hegemonic patriarchal master-disciple matrix, in addition to a certain idea of liberty in regard to international relations and borders, I perceive these Francophone Maghrebi authors as pursuing a distinctive kind of freedom, one linked to their liminal positions. I take Victor Turner’s conception of the liminal a step further by pointing to the relevance of barzakh, an Arabic word theorized by the 13th century Andalusian philosopher Ibn al-Arabi as an isthmus and womb. I further build on this concept by focusing on the inarticulatable aspects and transgressive possibilities outside transnational structures and traditions.