On Writing Identity and Difference in Moroccan Literature: An Interview with Latifa Labsir

This interview engages with the literary and critical project of Moroccan writer and scholar Latifa Labsir. It explores how her work navigates questions of difference, imagination, and ethical responsibility. Through a discussion of her fiction and critical writings, particularly Ṭayf Sabība (The Phantom of Sabiba), Labsir reflects on literature’s capacity to translate between worlds: between silence and speech, self and other, reality and imagination. She examines the role of narrative in approaching autism, childhood, and family life. The conversation also addresses broader concerns that shape her trajectory, including women’s writing, autobiography, visual art, and the relationship between realism and the imaginary in contemporary Moroccan literature. The interview presents literature as an ethical practice that is capable of opening spaces for recognition and inclusion.