Overview

African Diasporic Cinema analyses the aesthetic strategies adopted by contemporary African diasporic filmmakers to express the reconstruction of identity. Having left the continent, these filmmakers see Africa as a site of representation and cultural circulation. The diasporic experience displaces the centre and forges new syncretic identities. Through migratory movement, people become foreigners, Others - and  in this instance, black. The African diasporic condition in the Western world is characterised by the intersection of various factors: being African and bearing the historical memory of the continent; belonging to a black minority in majority-white societies; and finally, having historically been the object of negative, stereotyped representation. As a result, quests for the self and self-reconstruction are frequent themes in the films of the African diaspora, and yet the filmmakers refuse to remain trapped in the confines of an assigned, rigid identity. Reflecting these complex circumstances, this book analyses the contemporary diaspora through the prism of cultural hybridization and the processes of recomposing fragmented identities, out of which new identities emerge.

Full Product Details

9781611863642

Table of Contents

Reviews

Daniela Ricci brilliantly incorporates sociopolitical, psychological, and philosophical tools in her study of innovative aesthetics created by contemporary filmmakers of African descent. Ricci's well documented book, beautifully translated by Melissa Thackway, highlights personal journeys and diverse representations of global issues. This is a must-read for researchers in film, African studies, and diaspora studies, as well as other areas of the humanities and social sciences. --FRANCOISE PFAFF, Professor Emerita, Department of World Languages and Cultures, Howard University

"""Daniela Ricci brilliantly incorporates sociopolitical, psychological, and philosophical tools in her study of innovative aesthetics created by contemporary filmmakers of African descent. Ricci's well documented book, beautifully translated by Melissa Thackway, highlights personal journeys and diverse representations of global issues. This is a must-read for researchers in film, African studies, and diaspora studies, as well as other areas of the humanities and social sciences."" --FRANÇOISE PFAFF, Professor Emerita, Department of World Languages and Cultures, Howard University"

Author Information

Daniela Ricci teaches film studies at of Paris Nanterre University and the University of Paris 8 in France. She is part of the research laboratory Histoire des Arts et des ReprÉsentations and is a member of the African Federation of Film Critics, the African Studies Association, and the African Literature Association. Melissa Thackway is an independent researcher and translator. She lectures in African cinema at Sciences Po and the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales in Paris.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available