The subversive prospect of re-Orientalising Islam in Hafid Bouazza's Moroccan-Dutch fiction.

Re-orientalism is one of the under-researched issues in Cultural Studies. It is usually eclipsed by the upsurge of interest in Diaspora Criticism, which dwells mainly on the significance of human dialogue and cultural reconciliation. The present article aims to explore the re-Orientalist tropes, with a particular focus on the re-Orientalising of Islam, in the literary work of Hafid Bouazza, a Dutch author of Moroccan origin. It seeks to tackle the materialist incentives (intellectual celebrity and enlarged readership) that remain a neglected, but crucial motive that can connect the work of Bouazza with many other re-Orientalists. However, it does not claim that Bouazza's re-Orientalising of Islam is solely motivated by personal propensity to garner some economic benefits; for his works of fiction have undeniably participated in the shaping of a pluralised Dutch society through his celebration of the values of openness and diversity. Moreover, Bouazza's re-Orientalising of Islam is informed by his biographical history, the political and socio-cultural circumstances in the Netherlands. The process of his re-Orientalism is largely understood in the context of his circumventing and subverting of the Dutch exclusionary ethnicisation of migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]