Picturing the Maghreb: Literature, Photography, (Re)Presentation (review)

Picturing the Maghreb is a very well-grounded literary study of contemporary French and North African writers that analyzes the use and impact of photography in their novels set in the Maghreb. Mary Vogl discusses in depth the power of photography that is known to transmit misleading information, simulating a depiction of reality: "Among the visual media, photography is one of the most powerful means of representation because of its immediacy and also its supposed objectivity, the illusion of reality, and factuality that it provides the viewer [. . .]" (3). She reminds the reader of the exploitation of images by the colonizer, who most often chose to present an exotic view of North Africa, appropriating the Other to express a personal fantasy, promoting long-lasting clichés that to this day have devastating effects. She also recalls the Maghrebian cultural approach, which has been known to demonstrate a strong reticence towards images. While considering the numerous debates around the use of photography, she challenges the way writers turn to pictures, examining their positions towards such a powerful and manipulative representation. In order to do so, she refers to a wide number of recent critical studies and theoretical essays on photography (Barthes, Baudrillard, Berger, Sontag, and others) to present different observations and to retrace the signification of terms related to the camera and the taking of pictures, drawing a parallel to the terminology of conquest. Furthermore, in order to enrich the problematic she develops in her study, Vogl also considers photography books that focus on North Africa.

Vogl's study is centered on a selection of novels and essays by Michel Tournier, J. M. G. Le Clézio, Tahar Ben Jelloun, and Leïla Sebbar, all of whose works are known and discussed in the West, at times even seen by critics as maintaining exotic and ambiguous views. Thus Vogl, by presenting the numerous facets of the debate and setting it in the larger context of literature, raises many fascinating questions, which do not necessarily always offer answers, but nevertheless bring us to reflect on crucial matters that engage us in reconsidering historical and cultural approaches as well as examining complex concepts that shape our culture. With regard to this latter matter, it is interesting that she has decided to turn only briefly to the Moroccan author Abdelkébir Khatibi, who has written extensively on the links between literature and visual images and who has reflected in depth on Segalen's redefinition of Exoticism, proposing elaborate thoughts on matters such as authenticity, otherness, and manipulation. Nor does she refer to the Tunisian writer Abdelwahab Meddeb, whose concepts often are seen as obscure and intricate. Both Khatibi and Meddeb have chosen to work away from dichotomies which they find dangerous (Occident/Orient; authentic/inauthentic; true/false).

Focusing on views that have widely circulated in the West and molded the present political positions, Vogl has chosen to concentrate on the diverging views developed by the four authors analyzed, which closely reflect society's trends and at times are found caught in its web. She recaptures and summarizes the problematic treated with insight and sensitivity, inviting us by turning to literary texts to seriously question our interaction with images and search for ways to use visual representation in a constructive manner that breaks away from hegemonic and oppressive relations.