ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests specific authors and texts that may be employed in the classroom for introducing Maghrebi literature and the unique theoretical concerns that it provokes. Consequently, the Maghreb and its cultural materials – at once grounded in Arabic, indigenous and vernacular traditions – offer a rich repository of resources for instructors and scholars of Arab/ic literatures. The Arab Maghreb Union was created and ratified by the countries of Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania in 1989 as a forum for post-independence economic and political alliance. In particular, the ambivalent relationship of the indigenous peoples of the Maghreb to Arabic as a colonial language in many ways undermines the privileging of European geopolitical as well as cultural imperialism in the Middle East and North Africa. While some Maghrebi intellectuals have agreed with Waṭṭar's arguably myopic views on Francophone writing, most Arabophone writers have engaged intertextually with the region's various ethno-linguistic traditions.
