Trending classic: the cultural register of Moroccan Malhun poetry

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article demonstrates how the heteroglossia of malḥūn performances affects Moroccans as they negotiate identities and re-imagine Moroccan society. Performers' poetic devices and interpretations of the genre facilitate a process of representing and ’voicing’ social groups within contemporary Moroccan public discourse. I apply Bakhtinian dialogic analysis to address voices of stability that reinforce social structures of authority (‘centripetal’) and voices of diversification (‘centrifugal’) that re-envision diversity in Moroccan society. Artistic innovations, such as theatrical productions of a narrative malḥūn poem, make space for rethinking Moroccan identity. Malḥūn emerges from this study as a literary and cultural form that functions as a cultural register to inform public discourses regarding the nature of Moroccan identity.