Linguistic imperialism and colonial discourse in Elias Canetti's The Voices of Marrakesh: A post-colonial analysis

Abstract

In the context of colonialism, Morocco like all the countries of the Orient has been portrayed through the lenses of many orientalist travelogues. These literary texts are for Said’s (1978) colonial discourses that objectified the ‘Other’, perpetuating power dynamics between the West and the non-West. Scholars including but not limited to Laamiri (2009), Agliz (2015), Benhima & Khatib (2019), Simour (2020), EL Filali (2020) and Moussaoui & Benlamine (2024) have investigated the ways orientalist travelogues depicted Morocco and its cultural landscapes. However, the topic of linguistic imperialism in travel narratives is a significant knowledge gap that still needs investigation. This paper examines linguistic imperialism and its interconnectedness with colonial discourse in Elias Canetti’s (1978) travelogue The Voices of Marrakesh. The present study adopted post-colonial theories and critical discourse analysis to analyse Canetti’s novel. A careful analysis of Canetti’s narrative reveals the author’s perpetuation of linguistic imperialism. He marginalizes the Other’s indigenous languages and imposes western cultural hegemony on the Moroccan people while privileging colonial languages. Through the examination of the various manifestations of linguistic imperialism in Canetti’s travel account, this paper contributes to scholarly debates on the orientalists’ colonial discourse and the power dynamics between the West and the East.

Keywords

• Colonial discourse, Linguistic imperialism, Elias Canetti, The Voices of Marrakesh, Travel narratives.