Description
Book SynopsisSheds new light on politics and popular culture in the Middle East and North Africa.
Trade ReviewMoroccan Noir is impressively researched. Collecting the artifacts of popular culture in Morocco is no easy task. . . . Smolin's years of dedicated work spent compiling these materials has resulted in a book that is, without question, an accomplished and valuable resource on a little studied topic.
* Journal of Arabic Literature *
Smolin's research is impressive for its scope and attention to detail. Through archival research, interviews with key players, and media analysis, he has produced an invaluable study that will be of interest to anyone working on Morocco's recent history of human rights abuses and moves toward reform, the role of fictional writing, media, and television in these reforms, and the way that the state both controls and reacts to the shifting terrain of security and human rights.
* International Journal of Middle East Studies *
Moroccan Noir . . . is a cogent analysis of the hegemonic process at work, whereby elite groups are able to reconstitute and reinvent themselves in order to preserve the overarching power structures sustaining their dominant status.
* American Historical Review *
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration, Translation, and Style
Introduction: State, Mass Media, and the New Moroccan Authoritarianism
1. Police on Trial: The Tabit Affair, Newspaper Sensationalism, and the End of the Years of Lead
2. "He Butchered His Wife Because of Witchcraft and Adultery": Crime Tabloids, Moral Panic, and the Remaking of the Moroccan Cop
3. Crime-Page Fiction: Moroccan True Crime and the New Independent Press
4. Prime-Time Cops: Blurring Police Fact and Fiction on Moroccan Television
5. The Moroccan "Serial Killer" and CSI: Casablanca
6. From Morocco's 9/11 to Community Policing: State Advertising and the New Citizen
Epilogue: "The Police Are at the Service of the People"
Notes
Bibliography
Index
