FROM FRANCOPHONE TO WORLD: REDEFINING MOROCCAN WORLD LITERATURE AT THE INTERSECTION OF LANGUAGE, MIGRATION AND A COMPARATIVE CONSCIOUSNESS

In its naming of a Moroccan world literature, the Euro-American concept of World Literature, I argue in this article, reflects questionable paradigms of universal value and literary merit. As a body of theory and a reading strategy, Comparative Literature should be involved in this system of cartographic naming, and it should put to the test World Literature’s ethical and political engagements with emergent and postcolonial literatures. Providing a critical overview of the state of Comparative Literature in Morocco since its inception, I start by defining its current challenges and situating Moroccan literature in world languages at the intersection of three decisive concepts: language, migration and a comparative consciousness. In so doing, I endeavor to set up the foundational premises of a new vision of doing comparative Literature; one which is suitable for properly assessing the rich mosaic of Moroccan world literatures.