SOURCE: Ben Jelloun, Tahar, and Thomas Spear. “Politics and Literature: An Interview with Tahar Ben Jelloun.” Yale French Studies, no. 83 (June 1993): 30-43.

In the following interview, Ben Jelloun discusses his relationship with France and Morocco, his friendship with French author Jean Genet, and his overall body of work.

On May 25, 1991, Tahar Ben Jelloun addressed the public at the opening session of a three-day conference, the “Journées Internationales Jean Genet,” at the Odéon Theater in Paris. Ben Jelloun told how Jean Genet had phoned him after reading his first novel, Harrouda, in 1973. Because of several issues of mutual concern—racism in France, the status of immigrant workers, and the Palestinian people—Genet decided that the two writers should collaborate (see Le Monde diplomatique, July 1974), which they did on several occasions until Genet's death in 1986.

Several days later, Ben Jelloun granted me an interview to continue the discussion...