The other history of cultural encounters through performance revisited: shifting discourses on Moroccan acrobatic entertainers in nineteenth-century America

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper attempts to re-examine Moroccan non-canonical voices, their forgotten experiences and their itineraries beyond borders. It aims to uncover cultural discourses pertaining to early cultural and artistic interactions through acrobatic performances between Morocco and the West, namely America. In fact, less attention has been given to the presence of Moroccan entertainers beyond borders in the archives of history as Moroccan historians and cultural critics seem to have paid little critical consideration to Moroccan artistic encounters with Europe and America. They have overlooked to deal with travel performances, professional entertainments, and artistic spectacles, initiated by acrobats, as instances of visual cross-cultural encounters. This contribution attempts to locate the contesting acrobatic experiences of Moroccan professional entertainers in the American show business of the nineteenth century by emphasizing connections between theatrical performances, ethnic exhibition and world fair expositions. With a postcolonial inflected consciousness, the paper also investigates the shifting discourses about the display of Moorish culture and people within the fairgrounds wherein cultural identity became a discursive battleground for ethnographic classification and racial categorization. Popular theatrical venues offered substantial oriental-themed performances that resonated with a distinctive view about Self and Other paradigms as theorized by Edward Said in Orientalism.