Humour as a way to get away from lockdown

The spring 2020 lockdown literally immobilised the planet and people were legally obliged to remain locked up. Morocco could not escape the health instructions and was condemned, as early as March 2020, to lockdown. The situation of forced immobility is dual for a writer as it can be both a period of intense production and a source of anxiety resulting from the loss of autonomy and the lack of links with his fellow humans. As a result, resistance enters the scene and imagination gives way to an intellectual escape which takes the form of renewed creativity in order to express facts or feelings. In the process, recurring themes emerge. Youssouf Amine Elalamy, a Moroccan academic and author, has chosen humour to set free from constraints and unveil the ensuing fantasies. Using Indian ink instead of his usual pen, he composed an album, which he mischievously entitled J’ai fait un Dream. This paper aims at bringing out the forms and contents of humour, as well as understanding how it works. The purpose will also be to highlight the preoccupations that are already present in other books by the pluricultural author whose implication in the understanding of the contemporary Moroccan society is undeniable. Moving away from fiction and novels, he chose to write an album, which combines drawings and short comments supporting or contradicting them thus proving, if need be, the capacity of humour to transcend anxiety.