ABSTRACT
Edward Said underlined the relationship between empire, geography and culture, suggesting that thesewere drawn together by ‘overlapping territories and intertwined histories’. He reminds us that ‘even as we must fully comprehend the pastness of the past, there is no way in which the past can be quarantined from the present’ (cited in 1993: 2). The past and the present, Said points out, not only imply each other but also are linked inextricably. This book has attempted to examine how the postcolony has influenced the theorists under review, for, it is vital that theoretical work ‘formulate the relationship between empire and culture’ (71). Read in this way, it is essential that the Maghrebin influences are traced in the theoretical works of these thinkers. This book is not an exposition of origins or even a redefining of the question of ‘origins’.1 Rather, it is aimed at recognising the importance and fluidity of borders that have been rigidly imposed between the postcolony and the metropole.
