Translating Difference: The Ambiguous Representation of the ‘Exotic’ in Wyndham Lewis’s Journey into Barbary: Travels across Morocco

Abstract

Difference is dealt with paradoxically in discourse: sometimes, it is admired and eulogized by the perceiver to the extent of fetishism; other times, however, it represents a mixture of both love and repulsion. The concept of representation does not stand for a homogeneous idea, but engenders a plethora of other concepts that lead to an inevitable crossing of various disciplines. In this regard, Journey into Barbary offers a rich territory for the study of crosscultural encounters and the representation of difference. The paper investigates the discursive ambiguity in Lewis’s representation of Morocco. The focus is on the fluctuation between a celebration of exoticism, and an assertion of ethnocentrism and superiority. The paper analyses Lewis’s travelogue considering recent theories in postcolonial criticism, attempting to unravel and demonstrate the author’s biased racial attitudes and ethnocentric tendencies in representing Moroccan people and culture, as well as his representation of other cultures – which I refer to as the translation of difference – as manifested in his description of Berbers.

Keywords

• exoticism
• ethnocentrism
• imperialism
• difference
• representation
• cross-cultural encounters