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Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Special Issue on Literature No.3 October, 2015 Pp. 29- 44
Faculty of Letters, Sultan Moulay Slimane University
Beni Mellal, Morocco
The engagement of western writers with Morocco is part and parcel of a wider long running encounter with exotic cultures. The exotic world and its chanting appeals stimulated the interest of a host of travel writers and anthropologists around the globe. The exoticist and orientalist appeals associated with North Africa prompted many American and European travel writers to venture to Morocco to embrace a new cultural otherness. This geographical space seems to be totally different from the old and new worlds respectively. This, in fact, is due to the opportunities it offers. After all, both American and European travel writers and novelists headed to this location to look for exoticism and for stories of oriental decadence and splendor.The paper is mainly intended to explore western writers involvement and assessment of the Moroccan cultural difference.
Dr. Rachid Agliz is an assistant professor of the English language and literature at the faculty of
Letters, Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Beni Mellal. He has been teaching different subjects
like readings in culture, mythologies of the western world, British culture and society and culture
and society in Britain and the United States of America. His research interests include post
colonialism, post colonial literature, critical theory, orientalism, exoticism and post modern
anthropology. He is the author of a master’s dissertation entitled, Language Choice Among
University Students: The Case of AUI and is also the author of a thesis entitled, Exoticism and
the Construction of the Orient: A Study of some European and American Travel and
Anthropological Writings on Morocco.