Plural Maghreb

1983 collection of essays by Abdelkebir Khatibi

Plural Maghreb Author| Abdelkebir Khatibi

|

Original title| Maghreb pluriel
Language| French
Published| Paris, 1983
Publisher| Denoël

Plural Maghreb (in French: Maghreb pluriel) is a book of critical essays written by Abdelkebir Khatibi first published in 1983.[1][2] The book, containing six theoretical essays, presents and applies the concepts of other thought and double critique, addressing issues of language, translation, orientalism, knowledge, power, domination, and decolonization.[1][3][4]

In his essays, Khatibi conceives of the Maghreb "as a horizon of thought" and a model for plurality, alterity, difference, and alternative thought, calling for a "radicalization of the margin." While each essay can work as a standalone piece, the six essays are united by the theme of a "plural Maghreb," presented by Khatibi as both a historical reality and a desire restrained by the dominance of both theological-nationalist authorities and Orientalist colonial forces.[1]

Khatibi's thinking in Plural Maghreb is grounded in culture theory and philosophy of language, and it is influenced by the thinking of Jacques Derrida on deconstruction and alterity.[1][4][5]

## Essays

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### "Other Thought"

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Maghreb pluriel begins with a quote from the final chapter of The Wretched of the Earth, in which Frantz Fanon implores that Europe be left behind and that its legacies be rejected for the sake of finding "something different."[6] Khatibi agrees that there is an urgent need to find "something different," but asks: "must we not first postulate that this Europe is still a question that shakes us to the core of our being?"[7] In recognizing that Europe has rearranged the most intimate aspects of the colonized, he insists that disentangling from Europe is no simple matter, and that the call for decolonization must be reformulated.[6]

The opening essay Pensée - autre—a version of which was first published as "Le Maghreb comme horizon de pensée"[8] in a 1977 special issue of Les Temps modernes entitled Du Maghreb produced by North African intellectuals[9]—provides a theoretical framework for the rest of Maghreb pluriel.[10] In this essay, Khatibi identifies the "Western legacy and our very theological, very charismatic, and very patriarchal heritage" as the subjects of critique. He develops the concept of Other Thought, or pensée autre, which is predicated on subverting the domination of both the Western colonial legacy as well as Arab-Islamic heritage and conceives of the Maghreb "as a horizon of thought" and a model for plurality.[1][11]

### "Double Critique"

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The Double critique essay contains two parts: a study of colonial sociology—its "decolonization"—and an analysis of precolonial hierarchy in the Maghreb and especially Morocco.[7] The first part was written in 1974 and substantially revised, and the second part was written in 1970.[7] The essay engages with the thinking of Ibn Khaldun, arguing that it had been misappropriated by both Western and Islamic schools of social theory.[1]

Khatibi's concept of "double critique" can be summarized as the simultaneous de-centering of both Western, colonial systems of thought and power and Islamic, inherited systems of thought and power.[12]

Khatibi's thinking, and especially his idea of double critique, influenced the work of Fatema Mernissi and Walter Mignolo.[13]

### "Disoriented Orientalism"

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In L'orientalisme désorienté, originally published in 1974,[14] Khatibi criticizes the work of Jacques Berque, a 20th century French sociologist and Arabist at the Collège de France.[1] Unlike Edward Said, who in his Orientalism criticizes those who have written with intellectual and political hostility towards The East and constructed a narrative of its inferiority to the West, Khatibi targets the Orientalists who romanticize various aspects of The East.[1] Khatibi sees this romanticization as advancing "the pecuniary interests of Western technocracy."[1]

### "Sexuality According to the Qu'ran"

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Khatibi begins La sexualité selon le Coran by addressing what he sees as an absence in the previous literature of engagement with both "sexuality in Islam and Islam according to sexuality."[15] Khatibi takes Foucault's paradigmatic analysis of sexuality from the first volume of The History of Sexuality and argues that, as there is a lack of direct equivalents in Arabic, "sexuality" has to transform in translation into the target language and with regard to the bodies that speak it.[15] Khatibi argues that, unlike Foucault's notion of sexuality, the Quranic discourse on sexuality is legal in character, serving to regulate sexual interactions in social relations.[15] Although the essay's subject of analysis is Quranic discourse on sexuality, Khatibi's analysis makes frequent use of a variety of sources—not only from Islamic theology and jurisprudence and European philosophy, but also from Christian doctrine and Western art.[15]

Khatibi felt compelled to address the "silent questions" in Maghrebi society as part of his sustained dedication to subversive literature.[16]

### "Bilingualism and Literature"

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In Bilinguisme et littérature, Khatibi's concept of bi-langue ('bi-language'), a play on words suggesting bilingualism as well as a bifurcated tongue, is—as a process of constant translation and movement between center and periphery—a project of decolonization and questioning the established order.[17][5] For Khatibi, Maghrebi texts written in French are "narratives of translation," narratives that "speak in tongues," as the mother tongue—whether a dialect of Arabic or Amazigh—operates within the foreign language, resisting formality and functionality.[18]

### "Questions of Art"

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In Questions d'art, Khatibi develops his theory of artistic creation as a process of growth and reinvention.[19] The essay begins with the image of a tree, which is used as an analogy for a work of art.[19]

## Translations

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A translation by P. Burcu Yalim from French into English was published by Bloomsbury in 2019.[10] The English translation inserts the subtitle "Writings of Postcolonialism," which did not appear with the original publication.[10]

## References

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1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sajed, Alina (2019). "Decolonisation and deconstruction". Radical Philosophy (206): 94–98\. ISSN 0300-211X.
2. ^ Erickson, John D. (1986). "Review of Maghreb Pluriel". L'Esprit Créateur. 26 (1): 101–102\. ISSN 0014-0767. JSTOR 26284584.
3. ^ Fernández Parilla, Gonzalo. "al-Khaṭībī, ʿAbd al-Kabīr". Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_com_35502. Retrieved 2022-12-15.
4. ^ a b de Toro, Alfonso (2008-10-28). "Au-delà de la francophonie : Représentations de la pensée hybride au Maghreb (Abdelkebir Khatibi — Assia Djebar)". Neohelicon (in French). 35 (2): 63–86\. doi:10.1007/s11059-008-4006-6. ISSN 0324-4652. S2CID 144945235.
5. ^ a b Christensen, Tina Dransfeldt (2017-05-19). "Towards an Ethics of Bilingualism: An Intertextual Dialogue Between Khatibi and Derrida". Interventions. 19 (4): 447–466\. doi:10.1080/1369801X.2016.1277150. ISSN 1369-801X. S2CID 152223860.
6. ^ a b Wolf, Mary Ellen (1994). "Rethinking the Radical West: Khatibi and Deconstruction". L'Esprit Créateur. 34 (2): 58–68\. ISSN 0014-0767. JSTOR 26287497.
7. ^ a b c Khatibi, Abdelkebir (2019). Plural Maghreb : writings on postcolonialism. P. Burcu Yalim. London. ISBN 978-1-350-05394-6. OCLC 1085145027.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
8. ^ El Shakry, Hoda (2019-12-03). The Literary Qur'an. doi:10.5422/fordham/9780823286362.001.0001. ISBN 9780823286362. S2CID 242232977.
9. ^ Jebari, Idriss (2018-03-15). "Rethinking the Maghreb and the post-colonial intellectual in Khatibi's Les temps modernes issue in 1977". The Journal of North African Studies. 23 (1–2): 53–70\. doi:10.1080/13629387.2018.1400239. ISSN 1362-9387. S2CID 149331693.1–2&rft.pages=53-70&rft.date=2018-03-15&rft_id=https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:149331693#id-name=S2CID&rft.issn=1362-9387&rft_id=info:doi/10.1080/13629387.2018.1400239&rft.aulast=Jebari&rft.aufirst=Idriss&rft_id=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13629387.2018.1400239&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Plural+Maghreb" class="Z3988">
10. ^ a b c "Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. 2019-12-03. Retrieved 2022-12-14.
11. ^ boundary2 (2018-12-12). "Olivia C. Harrison — Maghreb as Method". boundary 2. Retrieved 2022-12-14.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
12. ^ El Shakry, Hoda (March 2022). "The Ontology of Becoming". Publications of the Modern Language Association of America. 137 (2): 370–380\. doi:10.1632/S0030812922000190. ISSN 0030-8129. S2CID 249047490.
13. ^ Oliveira, Jessica da Silva C. de (2020), Oliveira, Jessica da Silva C. de (ed.), "Introduction: Making the Case for Re-imagination", Postcolonial Maghreb and the Limits of IR, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 1–20, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-19985-2_1, ISBN 978-3-030-19985-2, S2CID 198755496, retrieved 2022-12-16
14. ^ Mignolo, Walter D. (2000). Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-15609-5. JSTOR j.cttq94t0.
15. ^ a b c d Brauer, Matthew (March 2022). "Alongside Sexuality". PMLA. 137 (2): 381–388\. doi:10.1632/S0030812922000220. ISSN 0030-8129. S2CID 249047557.
16. ^ Jebari, Idriss (2021-04-03). "The Other Khatibi: Envisaging Arab Intellectuals after the End of Grand Narratives". Middle East Critique. 30 (2): 149–168\. doi:10.1080/19436149.2021.1911464. ISSN 1943-6149. S2CID 235381270.
17. ^ Harrison, Olivia C. (2020-10-23), "Khatibi and the Transcolonial Turn", Abdelkébir Khatibi, Liverpool University Press, pp. 149–172, doi:10.2307/j.ctv18kc0xj.12, S2CID 236902410, retrieved 2022-12-15
18. ^ Erickson, John D. (1986). "Maghreb Pluriel by Abdelkebir Khatibi". L'Esprit Créateur. 26 (1): 101–102\. doi:10.1353/esp.1986.0009. ISSN 1931-0234. S2CID 164372391.
19. ^ a b Abdelkébir Khatibi: Postcolonialism, Transnationalism, and Culture in the Maghreb and Beyond. Liverpool University Press. 2020. doi:10.2307/j.ctv18kc0xj.20. ISBN 978-1-78962-233-1. JSTOR j.ctv18kc0xj. S2CID 243380095.