Background
Hafid Bouazza was born on March 8, 1970, in Oujda, Oriental, Morocco. Bouazza came to the Netherlands in October 1977 as a seven-year-old boy. He lived with his parents in the village of Arkel, near Gorinchem.
1987
1012 WX Amsterdam, Netherlands
Hafid Bouazza went to study Arabic language and literature at the University of Amsterdam in 1987.
(Hafid Bouazza is a highly influential and celebrated author...)
Hafid Bouazza is a highly influential and celebrated author in the Netherlands today. In the context of contemporary Dutch literature, Bouazza’s Moroccan background still marks a divergence from the born-and-bred Dutch norm. Authors with a bi- or multicultural background are still often cast in the role of ‘exotic outsider’. Bouazza both challenges and uses this position to the full. His writing demonstrates that the perceived us-them or self-other positions are questionable ideological constructs. He undermines the concept of a unified culture and the wholeness of the self. He explores and exploits stereotypical beliefs held on both sides of the East-West divide. The result is a magical realist setting that both puzzles and enchants. This book offers a reading of Bouazza’s literary prose that responds to the interpretative opportunities offered by an author who skilfully and creatively explores his peculiar freedom in his Homeless Entertainment.
https://www.amazon.com/Homeless-Entertainment-Bouazzas-Literary-Cultural/dp/303911333X/?tag=2022091-20
2007
(This book attempts to investigate the notion of re-Orient...)
This book attempts to investigate the notion of re-Orientalism in the Moroccan immigrants' literary writings. For this objective to be achieved, the book lays a convenient theoretical background to approach these literary manifestations as discourses rooted in energizing sets of epistemes that affect the diasporic experience of the diasporic writers beyond home. It argues that this search for a homeland is a politically motivated process influenced by the dominant forces in the host cultures which disseminate designations for ‘outsiders’ founded on their biographical referentialities. This politics of exclusion pushes various writers to throw behind their nationalistic nostalgias for home and zealously inscribe in the pre-existing essentialist preconditions prevailing in the host cultures for the sake of becoming accepted in the Western literary canons. These diasporic discursive articulations stand as reactions to the rhetorics of blame woven by political structures in the West as is the case in Dutch multiculturalism.
https://www.amazon.com/Discourse-Re-Orientalism-Moroccan-Diasporic-Writing/dp/3659974145/?tag=2022091-20
2016
artist composer educator translator writer
Hafid Bouazza was born on March 8, 1970, in Oujda, Oriental, Morocco. Bouazza came to the Netherlands in October 1977 as a seven-year-old boy. He lived with his parents in the village of Arkel, near Gorinchem.
Hafid Bouazza went to study Arabic language and literature at the University of Amsterdam in 1987.
Bouazza is a writer since 1996. He writes novellas, short stories, and drama. Bouazza also composes classical music, and uses the music to improve his writing technique.
He received the E. du Perron prize for his 1996 debut “De voeten van Abdullah” (“The feet of Abdullah”). Later works include “Momo and Solomon”, in 2001 “Een beer in bontjas” ("A bear in a fur coat"); the play adaptions “Apollien, De slachting in Parijs” ("The massacre in Paris") and “Othello”; and “Het monster met de twee ruggen: een kameropera” ("The beast with two backs: a libretto"). Bouazza gave the 2002 Mosse Lecture, titled “Homoseksualiteit en Islam” (“Homosexuality and Islam”). His 2004 novel “Paravion” won the 2004 "De Gouden Uil" prize. His novel “Spotvogel” appeared in 2009, after years of silence.
(This book attempts to investigate the notion of re-Orient...)
2016(Hafid Bouazza is a highly influential and celebrated author...)
2007Bouazza, an atheist, is known for his criticism of Islam.
Hafid Bouazza is a self-assured writer with an exuberant style. His tendency to decorate the world with words and his refusal to do so with moderation are no mere quirks. This man has the subject, the palette and the flamboyant hand of a painter. Hafid Bouazza received a letter from Van Gogh because of his rich use of language. Bouazza’s approach to writing sometimes resembles painting with words.
Quotations: "Islam is my stories always present in bizarre forms: the weird imam, the absurd laws. In reality Islam is clear enough to govern the whole life."