This work aims at filling a gap in African cinema studies. The plurality in film production has been neglected or overseen by Africanist critiques as well as most of the filmmakers from the continent. Such continental shield of a monolithic Africa has been carried by European anthropologists and fostered in part by the Negritude movement in the late 1930s, still conveyed by mimetic writing.
We begin by assessing such a uniform vision and explaining the ways in which it resisted time after more than 40 years of cinema in Africa. Then we introduce the notion of national cinema by exploring the evolution of thematic discourse in Senegalese film, in order to highlight national specificities, which have been overshadowed by a Pan-africanist approach.
Our focus on Senegalese film production allows us to unearth the cultural and social elements embedded in a peculiar history of Senegal. The countrys early contacts with Islam and later with Christianity and colonization on the one hand, and its relatively privileged relationship with the colonial power, i.e. France, before and after independence have generated a unique socio-cultural and political landscape.
We investigate how filmmakers have used such a rich and complex historical stream to question and challenge Senegalese national identity and esthetics.
In analyzing the thematic evolution in Senegalese filmic discourse, we come to find that not only Nations-states have always existed in Africa, but above all, the various styles and themes, which have emerged from the different approaches to filmmaking. Age, and therefore generation in Senegalese film production is crucial to understanding the Pan-africanist, yet local pattern in Sembenes films, the national and urban focus of Djibril Diop Mambety, the poetry and evasion in Moussa Sène Absas work as well as the various discourses on women through the male cinematic gaze which culminates with Joseph Gaye Ramakas controversial Karmen Geï. Ultimately, lAfrance is a pretext to explore the continuous, yet varied thematic evolution of migration between Senegal and France specifically through these generations of filmmakers, within the contiguous context of migration of texts and bodies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-11122004-113256 |
| Date | 17 November 2004 |
| Creators | Sow, Moussa |
| Contributors | Pius Ngandu Nkashama, Francois Raffoul, Kevin Bongiorni, Jack Yeager, Jeff Humphries |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-11122004-113256/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0018 seconds