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Where are the voices of the Postcolonial women? (Feminism fails to give…
Where are the voices of the Postcolonial women?
The subaltern woman
"If, in the context of colonial production, the subaltern has no history and cannot speak, the subaltern female is even more deeply in the shadow." (Spivak, 83)
The silenced
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Can the subaltern speak?
Perhaps through others? But this isn't pure thought - this is interpretation
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Through white men?
Feminism fails to give postcolonial women a voice
Emergence of postcolonial feminism
Feminism = western theory
based on white issues
Stems from the Academy - a very white dominated field
"The problem of the muted subject of the subaltern woman, though not solved by an 'essentialist' search for lost origins, cannot be served by the call for more theory in Anglo-American either." (Spivak, 91)
What does feminism offer for the postcolonial woman
What does this space need to do to be more inclusive?
Feminism interested in different things in different cultures
Film and film studies in inherently western in nature
Does this mean that it will never be a place for post-colonial voices?
To de-westernize
How can we de-westernize what has been said on this subject so far?
Will Higbee - De-Westenizing Film Studies
Method for looking at these films
To unpick, undo...
Recurrent theme throughout essay
What do we mean by the voices?
Literal voices?
Stories and experiences?
Creation of a cultural product?
Speech
Spivak's notion of speech requires a full transaction to occur
The act of listening
If someone is not listened to or ignored, they are being silenced
White privelage
Ignorant to the oppression of other people
Nollywood
Alt-nollywood
Zina Saro-Wiwa
Diaspora
subversion of nollywood
Comparison to Western Hollywood
Hollywood as the bench-mark. Always relating back to the west.
2nd largest movie industry?
Debate over when this originated
Representation
The postcolonial
To what extent could things have been different if history had played out differently
The term postcolonial covers many different countries and cultures. Make it clear who it is you're talking about
Ngozi Onwurah
White Men are Cracking Up
Fetishization of Black femininity
Murderess protagonist
African culture vs. British culture
Flight of the Swan
Young girl leaves Nigeria to persue her love of ballet in England
Rejection
From her peers
For her femininity - not living up to the mark
by her own voice
Ballet - rejected from the audition and the style of dance
told she would be more suited to contemporary dance
Torn between two cultures
Trying to become the white swan and move away from her Nigerian roots
The character who acts as her mentor/guide contrasts heavily to the Western culture she is trying to merge in to
Bodies
Relationship between mother and daughter
Both mother and daughter are denied a space in the world of feminine ideals
The Black woman and the ill woman
Welcome II the Terrordome
First feature length film with a theatrical release from a Black British Woman
Her life
Nigerian father. British mother.
Moved to Britain as a child
Didnt see her father once they had returned to Britain
Diaspora
Who am I in all of this?
I'm a privileged white women. I'm not in a position to speak about this topic from experience.
My white experience will distort my view on this topic