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Fantasies of Self Identity: Khatibi's The Book of Blood

In his never-completed “Voyage pittoresque en Algérie” (Picturesque Journey to Algeria), Théophile Gautier comments upon the rites of the Aïssaoua, a sect of North African mystics. He describes the sect as “a type of convulsionists of whom one hears marvels” [un espèce de convulsionnaires, dont on raconte des merveilles] ().1 Gautier immediately appends a remark calling attention to his own skepticism, a remark that leads him to a brief characterization of nineteenth-century travelers: