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Taskla or The Creation of a New Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2024

El Khatir Aboulkacem*
Affiliation:
Institut Royal de la Culture Amazighe, Rabat

Abstract

Taskla means literature in Tamazight. A neologism, taskla has been used since the 1980s by a group of Kabyle cultural activists, who had joined together in the academic association Imdyazen, to refer to modern literary genres that have been emerging in the field of Amazigh creation since at least the 1960s. Members of the Moroccan Association for Research and Cultural Exchange (AMREC) also adopted the term to encapsulate the work they were doing to construct the new Amazigh literature. This article reconstructs the choices that Moroccan Amazigh activists undertook to establish a full-fledged literary field between 1967 and the early 2000s. Contextualizing this new literature in a longer history of lmāzghī (Amazigh writing in Arabic script), the article reveals how a process of intentionality and active construction of the field has led to the development and current flourishing albeit changing, landscape of Amazigh literature.

Information

Type
Special Focus on Amazigh Literature: Critical and Close Reading Approaches
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Middle East Studies Association of North America

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