Claudio Minca is Professor and Head of the Cultural Geography Department at Wageningen University. His current research centres on three major themes: tourism and travel theories of modernity; the spatialization of (bio)politics; and the relationship between modern knowledge, space and landscape in postcolonial geography. His most recent books are Hitler's Geographies (with P. Giaccaria, 2016), On Schmitt and Space (with R. Rowan, 2015) and Real Tourism (with T. Oakes, 2011).
Lauren Wagner is Assistant Professor in Globalisation and Development at Maastricht University. A cultural geographer and linguistic anthropologist, her research concerns the dynamics of migration and diaspora between Morocco and Europe, as related through tourism encounters and linguistic practice.
Making a significant contribution to tourist studies and postcolonial theory, in this eloquent, evocative and richly illustrated text, Minca and Wagner produce a compelling account that reveals Morocco as a (post)colonial tourist dreamscape par-excellence. Drawing on a wealth of historical, travel and academic texts, the authors take the pulse of contemporary Moroccan tourism while tracing a historical trajectory that emerged from the visions of Marshal Lyautey, instigator of the dual city. Demonstrating how these French colonial designs rendered the country ripe for European appropriation through fantasy and desire, the authors weave a subtle, kaleidoscopic narrative that homes in on selective sites: Rabat's dual city, the intoxicating and baffling medieval labyrinth of Fez, the spectacularized stage of Marrakech's Jemaa el-Fna, the mysterious Kasbah, themed Saharan landscapes, the shifting hybridity of Tangier and the modernity of chic Essaouira. In these realms, tourists and locals consume particular forms of the exotic and reiterate performative conventions in the ongoing assembly of an imaginary colonial geography.
Tim Edensor, Manchester Metropolitan University
What are the commonalities between colonial and tourist narratives about an authentic or exotic Morocco? Moroccan Dreams examines how Moroccans and foreigners transact orientalist visions of the Kingdom. Claudio Minca and Lauren Wagner blend historical and contemporary sources with ethnographic research to unveil the modernity and duplicity of these visions. This book will surely inspire others to follow these authors' footsteps.
James D. Sidaway, National University of Singapore
From Claudio to Konrad.
From Lauren to Beth, who helps her persevere.
Published in 2016 by
I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
London New York
www.ibtauris.com
Copyright 2016 Claudio Minca and Lauren Wagner
The right of Claudio Minca and Lauren Wagner to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by the authors in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.
References to websites were correct at the time of writing.
International Library of Human Geography 34
ISBN: 978 1 84885 015 6
eISBN: 978 1 78672 017 7
ePDF: 978 1 78673 017 6
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Lyautey (Agence de Presse Meurisse 1920)
Cover of the Protectorate monthly Nord-Sud (c.1939)
Lyautey in action, in a French children's textbook (Flandre et al. 1955)
Moroccan People on display (Moroccan Tourist Authority 2004)
Looking across the Straits of Gibraltar from Tarifa (Friendly Rentals 2012)
Jewish man and woman of Tangier (Taylor 1826)
Moroccan and Tunisian pavilions at the 1867 Exposition (Lancelot 1867)
English explorer and author A.J. Dawson, in Moorish guise (1904)
Entrance to a Mell, or Jewish Quarter (Cook 1910: 175)
The Treaty of Algeciras cover of Le Monde Illustr (Abitbol 2010a: 151)
Cover of L'illustration (15 December 1917)
The crumbling architecture of a famous Fez medrasa (Bel and Larribe 1917, plate 50)
Le Maroc par Marseille by Majorelle (1926)
Exterior, Palais de la Porte Dore (L. Wagner 2011)
The Jet Age in Morocco (Shor and Shor 1955)
Travel to the country of wonders. Window of the Office National Marocain du Tourisme in Paris (L. Wagner 2006)
Mtro station advertisement for Nouvelles Frontires: Arriving you are called Martine. Leaving, Sheherazade. (L. Wagner 2006)
Formerly the Salle des Ftes, now the Forum, site of the 1931 Congrs International de l'Urbanisme aux Colonies et dans les Pays de Latitude Intertropicale (L. Wagner 2011)
Avenue Mohammed V, formerly Avenue Dar el Makhzen (house of the coffer), looking towards the medina (C. Minca 2011)
La Poste (C. Minca 2011)
Avenue Mohammed V, looking towards the Assouma Mosque and Quartier Administratif (C. Minca 2011)
Rabat from the north, c.1900 (Kerr 1912: facing page 228)
Prost's plan of Rabat, 1920 (Sefiani 1991: 89)
Rabat from above, c.1925 (Sefiani 1991: 90)
Promenade en vieux Maroc, opening page (Montfort 1917)
Lyautey's frontispiece in the 1921 Guide Blue
Protectorate-era tourism office image of Fs (Quesnel c.1935)
Aerial view of Fez (Brown 1973: 20)
French troops firing on the medina of Fez during the 1912 revolts (L'illustration, 11 May 1912)
The classic panoramic overlook view of Fez (Larribe [after 1917]: plate 2)
Picturing Fez for the outsider: architecture with unsuspecting bystanders (Larribe [after 1917]: plate 8)
Architectural interior (of a Jewish house) (Larribe [after 1917]: plate 5)
The street of Lauren's house (L. Wagner 2009)
Drawing of the rooftops of Fez from Pierre Loti's travels in Morocco, L'illustration (28 September 1889)
Scenes from Jemaa el-Fna at sunset (C. Minca 2006)
Tourists in Jemaa el-Fna (C. Minca 2006)
Tourist urban developments in Marrakech (C. Minca 2011)
Hotel La Mamounia (C. Minca 2011)
Orange juice sellers in Jemaa el-Fna (C. Minca 2006)
Local figure performing the traditional dentist in Jemaa el-Fna (C. Minca 2011)
Games and Gnawa dancers in Jemaa el-Fna (C. Minca 2011)
Snake-charmer taking photos of Moroccan tourists in Jemaa el-Fna (C. Minca 2006)
Gnawa performing and smiling in Jemaa el-Fna (Moroccan Tourist Authority 2004)
Bodies in the square (C. Minca 2006)
Valley of the Kasbahs (C. Minca 2012)
Harris' illustration of approaching a kasbah (1895: 76)
A Moroccan castle: The Kasbah of Ouarzazate, seen from the dry river bed (Babin 1907: 1645)
