POSTCOLONIAL ENCOUNTERS IN THE MAGHREB. TRANSGRESSING INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS By ALINA SAJED, B.A., M.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University © Copyright by Alina Sajed, September 2008 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 OttawaON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your tile Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-64700-4 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-64700-4 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. •+• Canada DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (2008) McMaster University (Political Science) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: Postcolonial Encounters in the Maghreb. Transgressing International Relations AUTHOR: Alina Sajed, B.A. (Romania), M.A. (Romania), M.A. (McMaster University) SUPERVISOR: Professor William D. Coleman NUMBER OF PAGES: v, 224 ii Abstract This dissertation examines the production of the "native" in literary and photographic narratives in the Franco-Maghrebian postcolonial context. More specifically, I selected a group of a few well-known Maghrebian intellectuals who write in French, who act as mediators of postcolonial difference between France and the Maghreb, while living between the "East" and the "West." In my dissertation fieldwork, I looked at the politics involved in the production of "home", "exile", and of "the native" within literary and photographic engagements of these North African diasporic intellectuals. Here, I argue that a reading of literary texts offers an alternative understanding of the International Relations of migration and of linkages between postcolonies and postmetropoles. Such an examination involves exploring unexpected claims to a 'native' status that brings about a re-thinking of disciplinary boundaries; an incursion into practices of spectrality in visual and literary narratives, whereby the postcolonial diasporic intellectual is engaged in the practice of collecting 'endangered authenticities.' Moreover, an alternative understanding of IR can also be perceived from the politics of language and hybridity, which arise for Maghrebian intellectuals living and writing about "home", and deciding upon audiences in their writings. Out of this politics emerge the categories of the immigre(e) and exile(e) that reflect a lived experience of international relations, and an absence of relations that adds to our understanding. The importance of this insight becomes clear when we confront a contemporary IR of migration written from a more mainstream perspective. Its ahistorical presentation and state-centrism are blind to the continuities of imperialism, where the postcolony is as much within the lived space of the postmetropole as it is outside. Thus I attempt to amplify this understanding of the IR of migration and imperialism through recourse to literary and visual narratives of Franco-Maghrebian intellectuals. iii Acknowledgements I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Professor William Coleman for his unwavering support and constant thoughtfulness in the supervision of my work. His assistance and generosity have made such a significant difference in my experience as a doctoral student! I also owe many thanks to Susie O'Brien and Marshall Beier, whose enthusiasm, helpful feedback, and faith in this project have sustained my research work. Peter Nyers has been involved in various forms in my research projects throughout my studies at McMaster. As such, I would like to thank him for his constant support and friendship. Many thanks go to Anna Agathangelou for her helpful comments and suggestions, and to Petra Rethmann for being an attentive reader, and for her rigorous and challenging questions during the defence of this dissertation. I owe a big debt of gratitude to Naeem Inayatullah for his patient reading and thought-provoking inquiries. The Department of Political Science at McMaster has provided a most collegial and fertile environment for study, research, and teaching, and I am very grateful for this. During my graduate studies at McMaster I have been lucky to be surrounded by good friends, whose enthusiasm and encouragement have meant so much to me: Carolina Aguiar, Charles Conteh, Jessica Franklin, Richard McLymont, Nadia Rauf, Asli Toksabay, Marcela Vecchione, and Fauzia Viqar. Last but not least I thank my fiance Leslie Wee. His love and sense of humour have lightened the load and have brightened the day. IV Table of Contents Introduction I. Nativizing discipline(s) and disciplining natives: post-structuralism, a Franco-Maghrebian theory? II. The 'evil demon of images' and the pleasures of the text III. Where have all the natives gone? Spectral presences in photography and literature IV. The politics of exile and diasporic identities in the Franco- Maghrebian postcolonial context V. Postcolonial strangers: portraits of migrants and migration in International Relations and in literary narratives VI. Diasporic identifications, translocal webs, and international relations Conclusion. Transgressing International Relations References V PhD Thesis - A. Sajed McMaster - Political Science Introduction In Arabic, Maghreb means 'the land where the sun sets.' A region defined (and known) as the 'West' certainly unsettles commonly held academic (and non- academic) notions of what the West is and where the West lies. To the Arab world on the Eastern shore of the Mediterranean (and beyond), this space is the West, understood also in the form of disparaging comments often made about Maghrebian people as not being 'real' Arabs, or about them speaking a 'dubious' Arabic.' Much of the early globalization literature dealing with global processes seems to distinguish unproblematically between the 'global' and the 'local'.2 Even critical theory counterposes the particularized, contingent and contextualized space of the local, to the universal(izing) and totalizing projects of colonialism/modernity/Eurocentrism, thus maintaining the global/local binary intact.3 Taking the Maghreb into consideration, one is puzzled by the precariousness with which such a binary becomes infused when applied to the region. The Maghreb has known a tumultuous and ambiguous history, measured in terms of the waves of invasion that swept through the region. As such, it is very difficult to regard the identity of the region in unambiguous and clearly defined terms. Political, social, economic, and cultural claims to the region have been made, over the centuries, by Berbers, Phoenicians (particularly Carthaginians), Romans, Arabs, Ottomans, French, Spanish, and Italians.4 Contemporary debates over hybridity are carried out in terms of refutations of foundationalism in the understanding of identification.5 Also, within postcolonial studies, debates on hybridity are more particularly framed by the 1 For an analysis of the politics of language in the Maghreb, see chapter 4. 2 See, for example, Robertson (1992), David Held et alia (1999), Jan Scholte (2000), Ulrich Beck (2000). Bauman (1998), and Sassen (2000) conceive of more sophisticated relationships between the 'global' and the 'local.' However, I argue that they still maintain intact the binary local/global. See Castells (1997), and Tomlinson (1999) for analyses that transcend such a binary. 3Consider, for example, the analyses of Ella Shohat (1992), Arif Dirlik (1994), Anne McClintock (1995), Edward Said (1994), Spivak (1999), among others. However, I see Anne McClintock's analysis in Imperial Leather as a sophisticated and delightfully imaginative way to both maintain the binary and subvert it. As it will transpire from the discussion in the concluding chapter, I find Mignolo's (2000) and Anna Tsing's (2005) conceptualizations of the 'local' and the 'global' very compelling, insofar as they allow for both a complex mix of agency and structural determinism to emerge, and for an understanding