Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines the benefits and limits of cultural nationalism, and describes the preliminary steps taken by contemporary filmmakers in order to establish a new popular African cinema. -- .
Table of ContentsList of images
Acknowledgements
Introduction: African cinema, nationalism and its discontents
i African cinema and national(ist) constructions
ii Wealth and poverty of nationalist scholarship
iii Postnational(ist) imaginary and new paradigms
1. Comedy and film
i Comedic archetypes
ii Verbal and visual comedy
2. Choreographing subjects
i Dance on stage
ii Dance, syntax, and discourse
3. Crimes, society and the “commandement”
i Africa and theories of (impossible) crime fiction
ii Absent investigation and the triumph of the commandement
iii Flawed investigations and the decline of the commandement
4. Myth, tragedy, and cinema
i On African cultural “specificity” and tragic forms
ii Oedipal conflicts, enemy brothers, and families in crisis
iii Absolutism, oracles and the tragic
5. Epic constructions
i Narrative performance
ii Epic magnification
6. (Un)masked sexuality
i African sexuality as category of analysis
ii Sex in the nation and the trouble with representation
iii Framing bodies and the temptation of pornography
7. Witchcraft and the postcolonial
i From sorcery imaginary to the imaginary sorcerer
ii Occult side of power, power of the occult
Conclusion: What is African cinema (today)?
Bibliography
Filmography
