Abdelmajid Azouine

A specialist in theatre aesthetics and performance studies, Abdelmajid Azouine is Professor in the Department of French Studies at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Mohammed V University in Rabat. His research focuses on contemporary dramaturgies, with particular emphasis on the dynamics of hybridity between text, performance, and the visual arts. He is a permanent member of the Languages, Literatures, Arts and Cultures (2L.A.C.) research laboratory, where he explores the intersections between literary studies and performance practices. His publications reflect a sustained engagement with intermediality and emerging paradigms of contemporary Francophone and Moroccan theatre. Alongside his research and doctoral supervision, he coordinates the Master's programme Literatures, Arts and Cultures in Africa (LACA). The research project developed during the DEA fellowship aims to deepen the analysis of cultural heritage through the lens of new theatrical writing and contemporary stage practices.

The project 

Title: Performativity and Identities in Motion: Aesthetic Hybridities in Contemporary Francophone Theatre and Performance

"This research project explores the reconfiguration of identities in contemporary Francophone theatre and performance, conceived as sites where aesthetic, linguistic, and cultural dynamics converge. It examines different forms of hybridity—formal, linguistic, and generic—as processes through which identities are constructed, negotiated, and transformed in a context shaped by transnational mobility, postcolonial legacies, and cultural circulation. The works of artists from diasporic communities, the Levant, and Sub-Saharan Africa foreground new modes of presence that interrogate the relationships between the body, memory, transmission, and plural identities. Situated at the intersection of theatre and performance studies, aesthetics, and postcolonial theory, the project argues that contemporary Francophone stages function as "Third Spaces," where hybridity transcends a purely aesthetic strategy to become a political practice of reconfiguring languages, memories, and identities. Through a comparative analysis of works by Wajdi Mouawad, Dieudonné Niangouna, Kettly Noël, and Penda Diouf, examined alongside the theatrical practices of Jan Fabre and Romeo Castellucci, the project seeks to provide new insights into the relationships between contemporary Francophone dramaturgies, embodiment, theatricality, and broader sociocultural transformations."

Hosting institution: Université Bordeanx Montaigne (ARTES) ; Université de Toulon (BABEL)

Selective Bibliography

• Azouine, A. (2015). Théâtre moderne et pratiques picturales : Correspondances et confluences. L’Harmattan.
• Azouine, A. (Dir.). (2022). Du non narratif au théâtre. L'Harmattan.
• Azouine, A. (2015). Le spectacle théâtral et ses doubles : L'exemple du « théâtre peint » de Jean Dubuffet. Plasticité : Revue d’études des poétiques et pratiques de la plasticité dans la littérature et les arts, (1).
• Azouine, A. (2020). Le constituant négro-africain dans le théâtre moderne. Horizons/Théâtre, (13), 68–76.
• Azouine, A. (2022). Le théâtre et ses alternatives à l'épreuve de la crise pandémique : Le cas du Maroc. Expressions maghrébines, 21(1), 103–112.
• Azouine, A., & Martah, A. (2025). Penser/écrire l'Afrique : Présentation. Langues et Littératures, (30).