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ETD Abstract Container

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An Exploration of Identity in Claire Denis' and Mati Diop's (Post)Colonial Africa

Coverdale, Katherine Lynn
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1594825313325872

Abstract Details

2020, Master of Arts, Miami University, French.
The focus of this thesis is aimed at two female French directors: Claire Denis and Mati Diop. Both auteurs utilize framing to create and subsequently break down ideological boundaries of class and race. Denis' films Chocolat and White Material show the impossibility of a distinct identity in a racialized post-colonial society for someone who is Other. With the help of Laura Mulvey and Richard Dyer, the first chapter of this work on Claire Denis offers a case study of the relationship between the camera and race seen through a deep analysis of several sequences of those two films. Both films provide an opportunity to analyze how the protagonists' bodies are perceived on screen as a representation of a racial bias held in reality, as seen in the juxtaposition of light and dark skin tones. The second chapter analyzes themes of migration and the symbolism of the ocean in Diop's film Atlantique. I argue that these motifs serve to demonstrate how to break out of the identity assigned by society in this more modern post-colonial temporality. All three films are an example of the lasting violence due to colonization and its seemingly inescapable ramifications, specifically as associated with identity.
Elisabeth Hodges (Advisor)
Katie Johnson (Committee Member)
Jonathan Strauss (Committee Member)
43 p.
Film Studies; Foreign Language

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Coverdale, K. L. (2020). An Exploration of Identity in Claire Denis' and Mati Diop's (Post)Colonial Africa [Master's thesis, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1594825313325872

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Coverdale, Katherine. An Exploration of Identity in Claire Denis' and Mati Diop's (Post)Colonial Africa. 2020. Miami University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1594825313325872.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Coverdale, Katherine. "An Exploration of Identity in Claire Denis' and Mati Diop's (Post)Colonial Africa." Master's thesis, Miami University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1594825313325872

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1594825313325872
1,257
© 2020, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License An Exploration of Identity in Claire Denis' and Mati Diop's (Post)Colonial Africa by Katherine Lynn Coverdale is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.