An atmosphere of mystery surrounds his work: Bouanani offers a precious contribution to Morocco’s collective memory.

Le Monde

This surreal poetry maps Morocco’s cultural history, as Bouanani hauntingly evokes all of the violence inflicted on his country

The Shutters

Poetry by Ahmed Bouanani

Translated from French by Emma Ramadan

The Shutters collects the two most important poetry collections—“The Shutters” and “Photograms”—by the legendary Moroccan writer Ahmed Bouanani. By intertwining myth and tradition with the familiar objects and smells of his lived present, Bouanani reconstructs vivid images of Morocco’s past. He weaves together references to the Second World War, the Spanish and French protectorates, the Rif War, dead soldiers, prisoners, and poets screaming in their tombs with mouths full of dirt. His poetry, written in an imposed language with a “strange alphabet,” bravely confronts the violence of his country’s history—particularly during the period of les années de plomb, the years of lead—all of which bears the brutal imprint of colonization. As Bouanani writes, “These memories retrace the seasons of a country that was quickly forgetful of its past, indifferent to its present, constantly turning its back on the future.”

Paperback(published Jun, 30 2018)

ISBN
9780811227841
Price US
16.95
Price CN
22.95
Trim Size
5x8"
Page Count
172pp

Ebook(published Jun, 30 2018)

ISBN
9780811227858
Portrait of Ahmed Bouanani

Ahmed Bouanani

Moroccan writer, poet, illustrator, and filmmaker

An atmosphere of mystery surrounds his work: Bouanani offers a precious contribution to Morocco’s collective memory.

Le Monde

A melancholy, hallucinatory, biting meditation.

New York Review of Books

Bouanani’s work mocks authoritarianism and fanaticism, despairs of Morocco’s democratic failure, and struggles to hold on to the cultural and historical inheritance its government is bent on erasing… A scathing, fearsome, and hallucinatory collection.

Publishers Weekly

After the collective trauma of the colonial occupation of Morocco, a vanguard of artists forged cultural practices that sought to establish a new vision of the country, appealing to its ancient traditions passed down through oral culture. Filmmaker, poet, and writer Ahmed Bouanani was a towering presence in this landscape, pioneering a cinematic and poetic language that influenced a generation to come.

Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art