The Dark Side of the Moon: Edith Wharton's Fictional Treatment of Islam in In Morocco and "The Seed of the Faith"

Abstract

Abstract:Edith Wharton's travel book In Morocco (1919) and short story "The Seed of the Faith" (1919) both resulted from her trip to Morocco in 1917. Yet ironically, the fictional short story may have come closer to the truth than the nonfictional travel book, which follows many of the orientalist patterns inherited from nineteenth-century travel writing to the Muslim east. The orientalism of In Morocco seems to hinge on Wharton's portrayal of Islam as a culture and a politics rather than as a religion, which leads to a fictionalized view. The short story, however, portrays the problematic nature of such views and their imposition on the Moroccan Muslims.